


Aquatica

by Volleygirl13



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Eventual Romance, F/M, Major Original Character(s), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 176,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23751343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Volleygirl13/pseuds/Volleygirl13
Summary: When the world seems like it is going to end, a new hero emerges along with the original seven members of the Justice League. With little experience and a foggy past, Evie isn't sure she belongs with the Justice League. With a little help from a certain caped crusader and the rest of her super family, Evie will know what it truly means to be a hero.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Justice League (DCU)/Reader
Comments: 9
Kudos: 43





	1. Evie

Name: Evelyn (Evie) Lowry

Super name: Aquatica

Description: Evie is 24 years old and has a military background. She is about 5'9, but still curvy. Despite her curves she is very fit and quite strong. She is pale and has dark brown hair. She also has bright blue eyes. She also lives in Gotham, at least when she has the time to go home.

Powers: Water manipulation. This can include moving water to whatever shape she wants, making and creating ice. She also can manipulate water molecules in other things, even the water in humans. She gains power from her staff and the water around her, including the water molecules in the air. Alongside her water powers she is proficient in hand to hand combat.

Weakness: Heat and dryness. If Evie is in the song too long or in a dry place, like a desert, her powers will deplete. One of the reasons she keeps her staff with her, it has a constant source of water.

Outfit: Kind of like Black Canary's, except hers is a dark royal blue leotard, black leggings, and black combat boots. She also has a black jacket that stops halfway down her arms, but she can still move freely in it.

Accessories: She has a dark grey staff that helps her control her water power. The staff is made of some kind of stone that has water imbedded into it (I haven't decided on the name).

Hey guys! Ok, so this is my first fanfiction ever! I am pretty excited to start writing this. I have had so many ideas in my head ever since I started re-watching the Justice League series. I wanted to get this description page up so I could let you guys know that I would be starting this story. I am not sure when the first couple of chapters will be up, but I will try my best to get it started soon. As is obvious, this story will span from Justice League to Justice League Unlimited. I think each chapter will follow each episode, and in the Justice League series, one chapter will be considered for parts one and two (or three) for each episode. This will be a Batman/OC story, because honestly we could all use a little more Batman lovin in the world. Please let me know what you think, and thanks for taking the time to read it!

-S

Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the delay but I was on vacation and didn't have very good access to the internet. So this chapter is some of Evie's backstory and how she gets her powers. I feel like when I was writing this some of it goes on and on and some parts aren't all that clear. Hopefully my other chapters won't be like this since I'll have the episodes to base it off of. The next chapter will be the start of the Justice League Animated Series. Let me know if you have any questions, and constructive criticism is always welcome. Hope you enjoy!

S.

I own absolutely nothing that D.C owns, all I own are my OC's.

I'm not a superhero. At least, I never thought of myself as one. I just always tried to do the right thing and hoped that it would all work out. I knew of plenty of people who would try and do the right things in life like I did, and they were never considered as superheroes. Of course, not everyone has the abilities like I do. I guess my abilities put the super in superhero. But whatever. Either way, I didn't think I was so super.

Before I start going into a philosophical rant about what makes a hero, I should probably explain who I am. My name is Evelyn Lowry. I never liked being called by my full first name. I mean seriously, Evelyn? What kind of a name is that? It sounds like some 18th century snobby aristocrat. No, I was always called Eves, at least by my parents, they were the only ones who were allowed to call me that. My sister and my friends always called me Evie. At first I didn't like that as much. Evie still sounded too sweet like a little girl in a bubble gum pink dress and pigtails. Ew. As I got older I realized that the name wasn't so bad. It was a lot like me, feminine but simple.

I suppose I look alright, that is, I never saw myself as drop dead gorgeous or anything. I was pretty tall for a girl, at about 5'9 (and no for you really rude people, I have never played basketball a day in my life. Gosh I am so tired of hearing that). I actually look a lot like my mother, with really dark brown hair that almost looks black, and bright dark blue eyes. My eyes weren't always this bright, but they changed after my, uh, accident. With the information I had now I never referred to this event as an 'accident' but for now I'll call it an accident.

I had a pretty normal childhood. We lived in suburban Gotham my whole life. I can tell what you're thinking, and yes, there is a suburban part of Gotham, it isn't all just dark and creepy big city setting with places like the Narrows. There is a happier side to it. Anyway, I lived about 20 minutes outside of the city in a big blue house complete with dog and a picket fence. Most people would say my life was perfect, and it was. Until I turned 12. It was actually my 12th birthday. That was the day my life changed. You see, I didn't want to go anywhere for my birthday… but my parents, well, they just had to try and do something special.

Don't get me wrong I love my parents, I really do. But aside from my mother's looks and my father's sense of humor we were nothing alike. I'm talking polar opposites, day and night, fire and water, those kinds of opposites. They had grown up as the elite class of Gotham. That 1 percent of people who never had to worry about money, and who always had the newest technology and gadgets before they even hit the public market. Now please don't think of them as these snobby old rich people, because they weren't that either. They ran a respectable business and always treated their employees with respect and gave them extra pay and vacation days, which is a lot considering some companies in this city barely pay their employers with minimum wage. A lot of people loved and respected my parents.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. I remember that day so clearly even when I try to forget it ever happened at all. A terrible storm had rolled in during the afternoon and it hadn't left by dinnertime. The thunder and lightning was so loud it shook the house. My little sister, Caitlyn, was terrified. She was hiding under my bed with our dog because they both were scared. That seemed to be the spot both of them went to whenever they were scared. At first I was annoyed by it because they would always come in my room, but I realized that I didn't mind protecting them. I was the older sister after all. It was my job to take care of them and make sure they were safe.

"Mom," I whined, "I really don't want to go anywhere tonight. Let's just stay home and watch movies and eat junk food. That's really all I want!"

"Eves sweetie, you know your father and I had to spend so much money to get the tickets for the art museum exhibit tonight. And we had to pull some strings to get into the restaurant as well." my mother told me. I looked down into my lap feeling really guilty. This whole art museum and dinner thing was my idea a couple weeks ago. I hadn't realized just how much my parents had to spend in order to make it happen for me.

I looked up at my mom's face as lightning lit up my room and thunder shook the walls. She looked so excited to go, I didn't want to ruin the night for her. "You know what, I changed my mind. I think we should go. It'll be fun." My mom immediately perked up and got that really excited look in her eyes, the look that made her eyes seem to glow a bright blue and her smile was infectious. I saw just how excited she was for all of us to go out. Mom loves going out and seeing the town, shopping, buying make up, typical girl things. In many ways I always felt like I was more mature than my mother. I was more down to earth and she was more childlike than I ever had been.

"I'm so glad you changed your mind sweetheart! Now, go get dressed, we have to leave in an hour." My mom bent over and whispered something to my sister. My sister squealed with delight, running out of my room and my mom laughing and chasing after her. My dog climbed out from under my bed and looked up at me. "Well, I guess we are going out then."

After the fifteen minutes it took me to go get ready I waited in the parlor of our house. I looked outside at the thunder and lightning and noticed that the rain had started. What started out as a few drops turned into a torrential down-pour. I could barely hear my sister sneak up behind me over the rain hitting the glass, but I could sense she was there. She thinks she's a super sneaky ninja, but I think that she doesn't know how to be quiet under any circumstance. "Cait, what do you think you're doing?"

Cait looked at me with her big brown eyes and a mischievous grin that I knew very well. She was planning something. And that was usually bad news for me. My sister was three years younger than me, and she was the exact spitting image of my dad. Blonde hair, brown eyes, and that little bump on the bridge of her nose. Also like my dad, Cait was a total prankster. Numerous times had I walked into my room and she had put a rubber snake on the floor in order to scare me, or she hid under my bed and grabbed my ankle when I woke up in the morning, or her latest prank, she put toothpaste all over the toilet seat so when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night I sat down in it. I never retaliated because I knew she was just having some fun. I didn't want to ruin it.

Cait didn't answer me, she just kept grinning. That's bad news. That meant she had already gotten her prank ready, she just had to wait for me to walk into it. I rolled my eyes, but smiled a little bit. I turned to watch the rain, not knowing that soon enough whatever prank she was going to pull on me wouldn't matter.

Half an hour later we were all gathered in the car and on our way to Gotham to the art museum. My sister was complaining about the music my mom wanted to listen to, my mom was arguing with my dad about how fast the windshield wipers should be going, and I just sat there looking out the window. Eventually I just tuned them all out. I didn't want to listen to arguing on my birthday.

As I was looking out the window at the down pour, our car started jerking and swerving. We were gaining speed and my dad couldn't stop the car. My sister was screaming in the back because she was scared, my mom was urgently telling my dad to try and use the brakes, and my dad was yelling back that the brakes weren't working. I sat there frozen, there was nothing I could do. With a roar of thunder and a flash of lightning, our car stopped suddenly and I was jerked forward so hard my face hit the back of the drivers' seat. In all the commotion and panic my dad didn't see the tree lying in the middle of the road. The tree we collided into. It was so quiet after the deafening impact of the crash that had happened only moments before. The last thing I remember was looking over at my sister and saw that she wasn't moving. There was another flash of lightning, my eyes started to close and then everything went dark.

When I woke up, I saw hands trying to pry open my car door. They finally got the car open and the paramedics started working on me, putting my neck in a brace and making sure there was no glass sticking into my arms. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that nobody was anywhere near my parents or my sister. I wanted to ask them why they weren't doing anything to help them. Why they were so still? Why weren't they waking up yet? Then in my haze I realized why.

The truth came down on me like a ton of bricks. They weren't walking away from this. They weren't going home. I started thrashing and trying to get back to the car but I was already strapped down to the stretcher. I couldn't understand what the people were trying to tell me but I heard them all yelling. I felt a prick in my neck and everything went dark again.

The following months and years following the car accident was a blur. I had gone from having a loving family and a perfect life to being an orphan and bouncing around foster homes. I never stayed with a family longer than 5 weeks. I just couldn't get comfortable with random strangers who I was supposed to make my family. I felt a stab of guilt every time I started to feel comfortable with a new family. This went on for a while, until I was seventeen. Then I enlisted in the Navy. I figured I couldn't afford to go to college since I couldn't touch my bank accounts until I was 18, and I wouldn't have known what to do after college anyway. At least in the military I would have three meals a day and a roof over my head.

I pushed and forced myself to work through the ranks and in four years I was asked to be in a specific group of soldiers. We were trained in advanced hand to hand combat, and weapons training. Not to brag or anything, but I was the top of our group. Apparently when you have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do it is pretty easy to give all of your focus into your work. My work just happened to be learning how to kill someone with something as insignificant as a safety pin. As good as I was at the training, I never thought I would ever be able to actually kill someone. But still, I trained so that if I had to, I would be able to protect myself.

I can't really discuss any more of my training. I still have contracts with the military that I am still required to follow. What I can tell you is, I was very good at my job. One day I was testing out some new weapons when I got a call to go to one of the labs. I didn't really question it, I had been called down before to try and test some different formulas for field work (again, more stuff I can't really talk about).

I had walked into the lab and I saw that it was empty. At first I thought that I was late, but when I looked at my watch, I realized that I was right on time. I stood there for another moment before I heard a noise. It sounded like something was sparking. Like a live wire had been put into a puddle of water and it was still sizzling. It was probably a really stupid move, but my instincts told me to walk over to where I heard the noise. It was the in furthest corner of the lab, a white machine that had a bottle of blue liquid in it. I walked closer to it; the noise continued to grow louder. I looked around me to see if there was anyone in a white lab coat who would have even an inkling of what to do in this situation. I looked back at the machine and saw that it was spinning and sparking at an alarming rate. A high pitched noise started coming from it, growing higher and higher in frequency. A small voice in my head told me to get out of there. For once I listened to that voice. I started backing away, but I was too late. There was a bright white light, an explosion, and then everything went dark.

I woke up in a hospital bed. The doctors came in and told me there was an accident, and that I now had special 'abilities'. At first I thought they were crazy, but then I stopped and realized that I did feel different. I didn't look over to see the cup of water on the table next to my bed, but I knew it was there and I could feel the water inside the cup. Each little water molecule that was bouncing around inside the cup, I could feel all of them, as if the water itself was present in my mind. It's hard to explain, but there was no other explanation for it. I could sense the water molecules that were inside the doctors and nurses in the room, as the blood pulsed through them I could sense the water as well. I could even tell that it had rained earlier in the day because of a few drops of water on the window sill. I was scared. I mean, being a really cool bad ass soldier was one thing, but sensing water? That was something else entirely. The doctors gave me some more medicine since I had bruised myself up pretty badly in the explosion. The morphine made me tired and I was in and out of consciousness for hours at a time.

I spent a couple days in the hospital. Different doctors and scientists wanted to know what I could do with these new abilities. I found that I could move around and manipulate the water in whatever way I thought of. Spheres, squares, octagons, dodecagons…well I think you get the point. If I concentrated hard enough, I could stop the molecules in the cups of water from moving and it would freeze solid. Eventually I could do it on instinct, without even thinking about the molecules and just wishing that the water turned to ice. As cool as it was, it was tiring. For days on end I would sit in bed and demonstrate my new powers to everyone who would walk into my room. The doctors even put me into a machine that could look at my brain as I used my powers. They never told me everything that the scan showed, they just said that it had become a natural instinct for me, whatever that meant. I was too tired most of the time to think about it.

On the fourth day of sitting in the hospital I was well enough to walk again. I decided that I had had enough of being a performing monkey for all of these doctors and scientists and I wanted to go for a walk. I got up to walk out the door, but I noticed that it wasn't closed all the way. I could hear hushed voices talking outside, a male and a female.

"…she could be the greatest weapon the military has ever seen. Even without training she is still powerful. Imagine what she could do with even more combat training." the male voice said.

"Yes, but is she going to be willing to comply when she realizes we will use her to hurt people?" the female asked.

"I don't think she has a choice. She is an asset now, we can't just let her go."

My eyes widened and I didn't want to hear any more, I slowly retreated back to my bed and sat down. They want to use me as a weapon? I didn't want to be forced to hurt people. The very thought made me angry. How dare they think they can just use me to do their dirty work. I knew I couldn't stay there anymore. I found my clothes, got dressed and waited for the shift change for the doctors and nurses and I snuck out. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew that I couldn't stay and be a human weapon.

After my "accident" I had to lay low. Like, really low. Everywhere I turned I was afraid there would be someone from the hospital watching me, or someone sent to capture me and take me back to the military to be a weapon. These were pretty stressful times for me, at least for the first couple of months until I was able to hitch my way back to Gotham. I had no money, no new clothes, and nowhere to go. I hadn't bathed in ages and I looked like a homeless person. I decided that I had to go somewhere familiar, so I went to the library that I had frequented as a kid. I went in to get out of the rain one night and saw that the place was empty. I logged onto one of the computers and searched my name. I wanted to see if I had been wanted by the government or something, but I only found some old articles from when my parents and sister died. I had an idea and logged onto the website for the bank my parents used. I remembered the old usernames and passwords in order to get into my parent's information. It turns out that when my parents died I was left behind a decent amount of money. I decided that I didn't really need all of the money, just enough to buy or rent a small place so I would at least be off the streets. If I take the money, that would be an easy way for the government to track me, I thought. I needed to find a way to get the cash so there would be no money trail behind me. At least the Navy taught me some hacking skills. With my limited computer skills, I managed to get into the banking system and wire all of the money through to an offshore account that I had setup. It was completely untraceable and now I could use my money however I needed to. It had only taken a few minutes and I looked around to make sure that nobody saw me. I waited until morning and I went to an ATM to withdraw some cash and I bought a tiny apartment in a sketchy looking apartment building in the middle of Gotham. It was a small one bedroom place, but it was plenty of room for me.

As time went on, I had to make a decision on what to do with these new powers. I had been working with them every day and I had gotten stronger. I also continued my morning runs and exercise regime that I had been doing in the Navy. To be honest, I was in the best shape that I had ever been in. I was confident in my new abilities, and I was sure that I wouldn't lose control and hurt others. This power seemed to do whatever I wanted it to, no questions asked, almost like the water was a part of me. There were some major perks, but there was also some disadvantages, like when the apartment next to me had a leaky faucet and I could hear the water drip. All. Night. Long. That was annoying.

One day I was watching the news on the tiny little T.V that sat in the corner of my kitchen. There had been a break in at a bank in Metropolis, the neighboring city. I sat there amazed as I watched Superman and Green Lantern take out the robbers with ease. They were real heroes. They didn't use their abilities for selfish reasons, and they certainly didn't hide them. In that moment I decided that I wanted to be like them. I wanted to use my powers to help people, to make them feel safe. And lord knows Gotham could always use some help. I made a call to a contact I still had in the Navy. His name was Hank and he was a sweet older gentleman. He worked in the research and development section and he always gave my unit new gear before anyone else could even set their eyes on it. I called in a favor and asked if he could hook me up with some stuff for 'recreational purposes'. At least that is what I told him I would be doing. I didn't think running around Gotham in jeans and a sweatshirt would be a good idea. After talking to Hank he said we could meet at some of the docks in Gotham.

Later that night I made my way over to the docks. I decided I couldn't draw attention to myself and I wore a dark sweatshirt with skinny jeans and some sneakers. I met Hank exactly where he said he would be, in a corner of the docks where a dull orange light cast shadows onto the surrounding crates. "Hey Hank, how's it going?"

Hank looked up at me and for the first time since I had known him I saw a grin on his face. Usually he was surly and gruff, but the more you got to know him the sweeter he became. Despite this sweetness, he never really smiled. In his defense though, whenever we really spoke at work we talked about weapons and how much damage it could do to people and places. Not necessarily the kind of stuff you smile over. But there Hank stood, smiling at me like I was a million bucks.

"Nice to see you kid. It's been too long." Hank said.

"Yeah, you too Hank. Look, I really hate to bother you and all, especially since you could get in a lot of trouble for just talking to me. It's a big risk for you, and I appreciate it."

"It's no problem at all. I've missed you, you were my favorite out of your unit. You always respected everything I showed you and treated it properly. Those other idiots would always mess around, nearly killing themselves. So, what is it that you've called me for? I figured you would be staying underground due to your…circumstances." I didn't even want to know how Hank new about my accident. I thought that the Navy would be keeping it as quiet as they could.

"I was. I mean, I am for right now, but I don't think I can any longer. It's been months Hank. I need to go out and do something. I can't just sit around with these powers I have and not use them. I feel like now I have a responsibility to help people and keep them safe." I said all of that in one breath I stopped and took a deep one. It was nice to finally talk to someone, to let out everything that had been stirring up inside of me for weeks and months. This isn't something you can just talk to anyone about. If I told people that I had water powers they would think I was insane. I looked up at Hank, and for the second time that night Hank was smiling.

"Well, it's about time. I thought I would get a call from you ages ago. I already started making stuff for you to use. I just had to wait for your call in order to give it to you." I looked at him in disbelief. How could he know what I was going to do when even I wasn't sure what I wanted to do? "So, do you want to continue this therapy session, or do you want to see what I made you?" Hank smugly asked me.

I kept looking at him in disbelief. "You're amazing, you know that?" He just nodded. "Well, let's show me what you've got."

Hank pulled out a duffel bag. "First things first kid. You need an outfit." He pulled out what looked like a dark leotard. "This is the body of your outfit. Dark blue, to match your water powers. The material is thin and very breathable. It's also resistant to cuts and scrapes. You could have a knife go across your chest and it won't leave a mark. It is also waterproof so when you use your powers you won't be running around soaking wet." Then he pulled out some black leggings. "These are made of the same material as the top piece. I'm assuming you still have your combat boots. Those will work fine." He laid everything out on the crate that sat between us. "This is the most important item here." He pulled out a dark grey rod that was leaning against the crate. "This material is very rare and very special. As far as I know it's the only piece that has ever been recovered."

"But what exactly is it?" I asked.

"This is Aquam Petram. It's Latin for Water Rock. This rock is basically made of water, but has the feel of rock. This will allow you to use your water even if there is no water near you. You can slowly extract water from the rod and then put it back." I picked up the rod and could immediately feel the water inside. I twirled it around my fingers. The staff was about 5 feet long and very sturdy; I could probably hit one of these crates with it and it wouldn't even get a crack in it. I looked closer at the staff and saw that it had carvings of waves going around it. It was simple and subtle, and I loved it. "That's everything kid. You should have whatever else you need."

"Umm Hank, what about a mask? Shouldn't I keep my identity a secret?" Hank looked at me with a curious look on his face. Actually, curious isn't exactly the right word; his face was practically screaming 'how exactly are you so dumb?' "What?" I asked him.

"Evie, you don't really need to hide from anyone. You don't have a family to protect and the only people that know you have powers aren't going to call you out on it. I would only get them in trouble with human experimentation. I don't think you are going to need a mask." He said. "Besides, how else will all the men see your face? You're getting old, you need to start looking for someone." Hank teasingly said. I could feel my face turn bright red. Like BRIGHT red. I could probably fry an egg on my face, that's how much heat was coming off of it.

"Thanks Hank," I said. "Cause that's what I'm worried about, finding a husband." Pssh yeah, like I'm going to find someone who would be okay with dating a girl who can control water and catches criminals. 'Oh sorry honey, I can't go on a date right now, I have a world to save and bad guys to stop!' Cause that will go over really well with the men. Hank interrupted my thoughts.

"Well, I think it's time we went our separate ways, kid." I looked up at Hank and was surprised to see he had a sad look in his eyes. Almost like he didn't want me to go. I realized now that there was no turning back. I was going on my own to stop the bad guys, I couldn't have the Navy backing me up anymore. I had to do this by myself. I suddenly became unsure of my idea. How could I do this?

Hank must have understood what I was thinking and he grabbed my shoulder. "Evie, you are one of the strongest people I know. You have lost so much, and you have been given a responsibility that most people cannot even imagine. Through all of this you have still been an amazing person and your entire life you have wanted to help people. This is just another chapter in your life, and you will be just fine." I didn't realize that I had tears welled up in my eyes until they started falling. It had been so long since I had somebody tell me they believed in me and was proud of me. I hadn't hear that my parents died. I gave Hank a watery smile and attempted to say thank you, but my throat was too tight and the words wouldn't come out. Hank gave me a pat on the shoulder, another rare smile, and he walked back towards the parking lot. I stayed on the dock looking down at the outfit that was still lying on the crate. I took a deep breath, packed all of it away, grabbed my new staff, and walked towards the city lights. Let the new chapter of my life begin.


	2. Secret Origins

Hey guys! So here is chapter 2, all ready for you. This chapter was really long, but I forgot that the first episode was in three parts. It took forever to write this! Hopefully you guys didn't give up on me, and are anticipating reading this next part.

I think I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but I want to talk about Evie's staff for a second. The staff, as I mention in this chapter, is collapsible. I pictured it kind of like Robin's staff from Teen Titans, where he pulls it out and flicks it and it becomes longer. I wanted Evie to be able to make her staff smaller so she could hang it off of her leggings from a loop on the waistband, that way it won't get in the way when she kicks butt. Anyway, I just didn't want anybody to get confused over that in this chapter.

As always, please read and leave a review for me, I love reading what you guys have to say about it.

~S.

I do not own anything from the D.C universe besides my OC's. I also do not own any song, movie, tv show, etc. that is referenced in the story.

Chapter 2

A few weeks have passed since I got my gear from Hank and started patrolling Gotham. At first I was just getting familiar with the layout of the city; going around from rooftop to rooftop and studying the streets and rhythm of the nights. I was never too familiar with the city since I didn't grow up in it. I never realized just how big it actually was. I mean, I have a pretty good memory and it took me almost 3 weeks to memorize the street names and where they are. That's a pretty big city. After I had the street names down I started going around and interfering with some minor crime. You know, old ladies getting their purses stolen, young kids robbing ATMs, the usual petty crimes.

I didn't think I was ready for any major crimes yet, plus I didn't want to step on anyone's toes. I was just a newbie. Who was I to come in and start trying to clean up Gotham? Besides, that was all Batman's job. I had never met him but from what I had heard he wasn't one to share his toys and I certainly didn't want to get him mad at me. Apparently he was fond of holding people off of buildings when he really didn't like them. I decided he was capable of the major stuff, and I would handle the minor crimes.

I also took this time to become attuned to my powers. Over the past year I had learned the basics and how to bend the water into whatever I needed, and I knew how to freeze it and create ice. Now I just experimented with creating knives and blades that could help me. If found that creating small daggers was easy, and I could throw them if I needed to. Due to my previous training, I was able to throw these daggers with a dangerous accuracy. I also learned that I could freeze around an object and lift it that way. This made my life easier since I don't have super strength or anything. Oh, and I also found out I can fly. Well, I can't actually fly, not like Superman or anything. My version is less flying and more surfing. You see, I can make an ice board and stand on it, then manipulate the board to fly wherever I want. Yeah, it wasn't that fun to figure out. I may or may not have tripped…off a building…and almost died. Thankfully my instincts kicked in and I made the ice board in time, or else I would have been an Evie pancake on the sidewalk. Either way, my powers were greatly improving.

One night when I was out on my patrol I overheard a woman speaking on her phone. She was standing on her balcony and I was on the roof right above her; and no, that isn't spying or being creepy, I didn't choose to overhear her. It's not my fault she was speaking really loudly. Anyway, I overheard her talking about how one of her friends had been acting strangely and not like herself. She said she worked for some space research company and she thought she was just too stressed out from all of her work. Now usually the gossip of a middle aged woman doesn't interest me, but I had this gut feeling that this wasn't just some stupid and random piece of information. I listened in on the woman's conversation a little while longer and got the name and the company the woman worked for. I decided that the next night I would go over to the woman's workplace and take a look.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I was bored. I mean, sitting on top of a building for hours on end wasn't any fun at all. I got to the company the woman mentioned yesterday at about 5. I figured that was pretty close to quitting time and I would be able to see her friend walk out of the building. Four hours later and she hadn't come out yet, or at least I hoped I hadn't missed her. I decided that I was tired of waiting and I should go do some investigating.

I ran across the roof and went in through a ventilation shaft I found. Man, for a high tech space company they sure aren't big on security, I thought to myself. I landed on a ceiling beam and walked over to a dark corner where no one would be able to see me. I crouched down with my staff in hand in case for some bizarre reason, I would need it. I looked down and four scientists were working at their desks. I saw the name plate of the woman's desk and recognized it as the friend of the woman I had overheard the night before.

While I waited in my corner I heard a noise coming from above me. The grate that I had just come in through was being taken out. Great, I'm gonna get caught. But the figure that jumped down wasn't some security guard, it was somebody in a black cape with horned ear pointer things that made up a mask. Oh, you have got to be kidding me. It was the bat. The man that every criminal in Gotham feared. Of course it would be my luck to run into him, I wonder if I could sneak away without him noticing me. Probably not, he isn't a superhero for nothing. Then I stopped and wondered what exactly he was doing here. I didn't think Batman was here just to figure out what was wrong with some woman's friend. There had to be something bigger going on here. Damn my curiosity. I decided to stay hidden behind Batman and watch the scientists some more.

The blonde male scientist got up and headed towards the door. "Remember, barbeque at my place Saturday night. You're all invited. Venus is rising early. And you know what that means." The scientists all agreed that they would be there. The scientist laughed, "You guys are animals." Oh boy, what a bunch of nerds, I thought.

I was going to leave as soon as Batman was gone. I mean, what was the point of trying to figure out what was wrong with this woman besides the fact that she is excited for party over a planets rising? I looked back down and saw the older man stand up. I think he spoke, but it sure wasn't English. It wasn't even a language that I had ever heard before. It sounded like some drunk guy trying to speak Greek. I furrowed my eyebrows, Okay…I see what the mystery might be here. They all stood up and then walked over to the wall where the shelves were lined up. I almost couldn't believe my eyes. The third scientist, who didn't look like he weighed 90 pounds soaking wet, picked up the whole shelf. Okay, either that guy has seriously been working out or there is more to this than meets the eye. The woman that I was keeping an eye on walked over to the concrete wall and pulled a hole clean through it. Did I mention the wall was concrete? Cause it was. The way she put her hand through the wall made me think it was made out of play dough instead. She grabbed some disk looking object that was black and white with gray ovals on it. She started speaking that same weird language, the guy put the shelf down, and they walked out of the room.

I looked at Batman to see what he would do, and I hoped that he wouldn't notice me. I didn't want him thinking I was like one of these people down there, which would result in me getting a batarang to the face. I liked my face the way it was thank you very much. Then, thankfully, Batman left and followed the weird people out of the building. I sat there for a minute and debated on following him out and helping in case anything happened. Then I thought about leaving. It sounds like that woman's friend isn't human anymore. Oh well, not my problem, I thought but then my conscious spoke up. I had done all of this because I wanted to help people. Maybe I could help the woman…scientist… weird alien thingy. I sighed to myself and went through the vent. I stayed a little ways behind the scientists and Batman. I wasn't quite ready for him to know I was following him. I watched as the four scientists walked all the way up the satellite dish and put their weird disk thing on top. I couldn't see what exactly it did since I was too low, but I figured it didn't do anything good. Then to my amazement, Batman spoke.

"I doubt that modification is legal." He almost growled out. Seriously, the man has a really deep voice. Before I could ponder over how a man's voice is that deep, he threw a rope with two weights on the bottom, and they wrapped themselves around the two male scientists. Dang, I hoped that it wouldn't come down to a fight.

Batman jumped over the two on the ground and went right for the female. Now let me say, I know it isn't right to judge people based on their looks, but this woman didn't look like she had thrown a punch a day in her life. But there she was, laying Batman out like he was some scrawny kid in gym class. She threw him all the way towards me, but he up righted himself and landed on his feet. I looked past him and the two scientists sucked themselves in so they were impossibly skinny so they could slip out of the ropes. Man, I wish I could do that, it would make me feel better about fitting into skinny jeans. Batman backed up and prepared himself for the fight. Then he jumped up and threw a batarang right at the woman scientist and it bounced off of her head without a scratch. The Asian scientist charged him and pushed him off the edge. I was about to make a board and fly down to catch him, but Batman pulled out a grappling hook and swung himself back onto the beam. Then out of nowhere, came Superman. Great, I am so underqualified for this kind of thing I thought.

"Need a hand?" Superman said, hovering over the ground.

Exasperated, Batman growled out "Thanks, but I can handle this." He turned back around to the oncoming scientists. I vaguely heard Superman say something about them not looking tough and I almost laughed aloud. He hasn't seen anything yet.

The three scientists, if I can even consider them human at this point, ran back towards the edge of the satellite with Batman following them. Superman looked like he was going to follow them but then he stopped and yelled while grabbing his head. I started to get worried. What could do that to the man that is practically indestructible? Then he fell down onto the beam and tumbled forward. It was probably stupid, but on instinct I grabbed my staff and ran out of my hiding space and went to go help him. Batman turned around to look at him and he saw me. I could see his eyes widened through his mask and I'm pretty sure he started to reach for his batarang. Oh boy I thought. I looked behind him and saw the older scientist reach into his jacket pocket and pull out something that was colored the same way as the disk they had earlier. He pressed a button and an alarm started blaring from somewhere. Batman looked back at me and I finally decided to say something.

"That doesn't sound good, you grab Superman and I'll cover you." He looked like he wanted to disagree (of course that's with his mask on, so who knew what he was actually thinking) but he grabbed Superman and turned around to see the three scientists jump off of the satellite. My stomach felt like it had turned to lead. There's no way they survived that jump, I thought. I didn't have time to think about it any further because the beeping started to go faster and I had a pretty good guess as to what that meant. Right before the whole structure exploded, I saw Batman use his grappling hook and try to swing down to the ground. "Geez, thanks for helping me out." I grumbled to myself. Then I realized, with the structure falling apart the hook won't have anything to hold onto. I jumped off the structure and went to make an ice sphere, big enough to hold the two of them in when I surfed on my own patch of ice.

Before I could make their sphere though, an explosion went off and Batman's grappling hook was knocked free. I threw my hand out to make a sphere that they would land in and they did. Batman looked up at me, confusion written all over his face. I surfed over to the sphere and I landed it down the hill, so none of the falling debris could hit us. I then melted the water so it could go back into my staff. I turned around and watched the building go up in flames. Then to my utter disbelief I saw three figures rise up out of the ground. "No way." I said out loud. Even from a distance I could see the three scientists were horribly mangled, but then they started to pop themselves back together. The noises of their broken necks being popped back into place sent shivers down my spine. Once they popped their bodies back together, they walked away towards the woods and the older scientist looked directly at us and did a weird tongue clicking thing and pointed at us, something that I had only seen wannabe cool kids do. I raised an eyebrow, yeah, something is definitely not right here.

I turned back to Batman and said, "Well that was interesting." And judging by the look I got, that wasn't the sentence that he wanted to hear from me. Thankfully, Superman sat up and rubbed his head, which gave me a break from the intense glare that Batman was giving me.

"What happened?" Superman groaned out. Batman helped him out. "You tell me." he said. Superman looked at him, and it seemed as if he was struggling to find the right words. "I don't know. I saw images, just so intense. And then…well, that's all I remember."

Batman turned to look back at the burning building. "Obviously, they didn't want to leave evidence behind."

I decided to stay silent throughout this whole conversation. I figured the less attention I drew to myself, the better.

"What's this all about?" Superman asked.

Batman glanced at me like he didn't want to say anything in front of me. Superman followed his glance and I guess he finally noticed me. "Ummm, Bats. Who's this?"

"Funny, I was wondering the same thing. She just appeared after you went down. Then she floated us down to the ground in what appeared to be ice." Now I had both superheroes looking at me. One curiously, and the other was just straight glaring.

I nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of my neck, a habit I often do when I'm nervous. "Well, my name is Evelyn Lowry, but I go by Evie." They both looked at me like they wanted more information, which is pretty fair I guess. I mean, I did just make a giant ice ball. They deserved some answers. "I have the ability to manipulate water and ice, hence the giant ice sphere that I put you two in."

Batman stepped forward, which made me very nervous. "That doesn't explain why you showed up here tonight. For all we know, you could have caused Superman to collapse like that." I just looked right back at him. Did he not hear me say that I could only control water and ice? Now I was starting to get annoyed.

"Well unless he saw images of some nice rivers or frozen over lakes, then it wasn't me." I sarcastically replied back to him. Great Evie, annoy the really strong guy who could break me like a toothpick, cause that's just a great plan. Before Batman could do anything, Superman stepped in.

"Why are you here?" he asked in a much gentler tone than Batman did.

I looked at both of them. "I was out in Gotham the other night when I heard a lady talk about how her friend wasn't answering her phone calls and was acting all weird. At first I didn't think anything of it but I had a feeling it was important. I found out where the lady was working and I decided to follow up. That's why I was here tonight." I glanced between the two of them and said, "Believe me, I didn't expect for all of this to happen." The two men glanced between each other and then back at me. Superman was the first to speak.

"Well, considering you were here for the whole thing, I think you deserve some answers." Superman looked back at Batman. I'm pretty sure Batman's head was going to pop off, that's how angry he looked. "Oh come on Bats. I know you don't trust people, but she did just help us. And I think if she wanted to hurt us she would have tried already. She just saw everything we saw, she should get answers too." I was about to say how 'she' has a name but I figured I didn't want a batarang sticking out of my forehead.

Batman looked back at me and sighed. "Over the past few months, I've detected several security breaches in our global deep-space monitoring network." He said in his seriously deep voice.

"And no one's claimed responsibility?" Superman asked.

"No. There's more to this than meets the eye." He said before glancing at me, as if I had something to do with this. He kept glaring at me like he could see all my secrets. Who knows? Maybe the world's greatest detective could do that. Maybe Batman was actually Sherlock Holmes, I mean, he already had the deep voice down. Now he just needs a magnifying glass and a deerstalker.

"I'd like to stay and look into it, but I'm expected back in Metropolis." Superman said, getting ready to fly off.

"Another key to the city?" Batman said. That's funny, it almost sounded like Batman was making a joke. Maybe he isn't as dark and mysterious as everyone thought. Then I looked him over. Between the mask and the all dark and grey outfit, I figured I was wrong.

Superman just looked at him and handed him a watch. "Here. It's a signal watch. Call if you need any more help." He turned away from Batman and looked at me. "It was nice meeting you Evie, if you need help, just ask us." Pshh yeah, like Batman ever wants to talk to me ever again I thought to myself. Either way I gave him a small smile and said thanks. With that, Superman jumped up and flew away. Now let the awkwardness begin. It was just me and Batman standing in the middle of this clearing with a burning building behind us. Batman pocketed the watch and turned to me. I just let him stare at me as I examined my boots. Maybe it was childish not to look at him, but I didn't really care. I felt like such an amateur after being in the presence of both Superman and Batman.

"Did you say you were in Gotham?" At first I thought he had gone crazy and was talking to himself. Was he seriously talking to me? I looked up and saw that he was staring right at me.

"Umm, yeah." I quietly said. Batman thought for a second.

"I haven't seen you before."

Well, I am pretty new to this whole thing, but I wasn't about to tell him that. Gaining courage I looked up at him and said, "Maybe I'm just that good at sneaking around."

He looked at me for a second, analyzing every part of me. "No one is that good." I took that as my dismissal. I looked back at the building, and turned back towards Batman.

"Well, if you need anything, you should be able to figure out where to find me." I started walking away when I stopped and turned back. "Not that I think you need help or anything, I was just being nice. Obviously you don't need help from me. Not that I can't do important stuff, it's just you're so good at what you do and you probably have better resources than I do and all of that, plus Gotham is your city so you definitely know what you're doing. Well, I guess Gotham isn't really your city, not that you don't take care of it like it was your city!" Crap. I was rambling. I felt my cheeks go red and I mumbled, "I'm just gonna go now." I turned around, made an ice disk, and flew back home. And I didn't see a man dressed as a bat for the rest of the night.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next morning I woke up later in the morning than I usually do. After my little adventure at the satellite I came back to Gotham and went on my usual patrol. I stopped some guy from robbing a young woman, but then he ran, and let me tell you, that guy could have been a sprinter in the Olympics. I had to have run over 2 miles before I caught him, and by the time the early hours of morning came, I was exhausted. When I woke up at 11, I helped myself to a bowl of cereal and turned on the news. The news was showing some protesters yelling about some missiles or nuclear stuff. I was too enthralled in my cereal to pay too much attention. I finally looked up when I heard Superman talking. So that must have been where he had to be last night. He started talking about upholding truth and justice for all of the world. Man, he's like a real life super boy scout.

I finished my cereal and decided to go and get ready for the day. I wanted to try looking over what exactly that space research company did. After five whole hours of looking, I found absolutely nothing. The only thing I found was the address for an old warehouse the company owned. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was almost time for me to go out on my patrol. I figured that this lead was better than anything else I had, and decided that that was where I was going to go tonight.

I arrived at the warehouse just after sundown. I picked the lock on the door and walked in. Inside was dozens of old computers and discs lying on the different desks. I decided to go further into the building and see if I could find anything. After fifteen minutes of searching, I heard a noise in the front of the room. Thinking it was those weird scientists from last night, I made an ice dagger in my one hand and unfolded my staff with the other, and crept towards the front. That's when I saw the familiar cape and horned mask that Batman always wore. Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I was about to put my ice dagger away when a batarang flew right past my hiding place and imbedded itself into the desk next to me.

I jumped up and looked at him. "Do you mind not impaling my face with one of those things? I kind of like it that way it is." I practically shouted at him. He squinted his eyes at me and I could tell he was not happy to see me.

"What are you doing here?" He literally growled at me.

"Following a lead. What are you doing here?" I sassed right back at him.

He ignored my question. "You don't belong here. You're just a kid. Go home." He tried to walk right past me but I stepped in front of him.

"For you information, I'm not a kid, I'm 24 thanks. Second, I do belong here. Last night I watched three people jump from 6 stories and walk away, after they literally put themselves back together. I think I deserve some answers." My mind registered what I had just said and my eyes widened. I honestly prepared myself for a punch in the face from Batman, but instead he looked at me and pressed his lips together.

"Fine. You can stay. Just don't get in my way. And after this case, you go back to stopping petty crime. Got it?" he retorted.

I was surprised he was letting me stay with him. He had quite the reputation of doing things by himself. "Fine, I'll stay out of your way." I told him. This time I let him walk past me and to the desk I was standing right in front of. I looked on the desk and saw that it had another disk like what the scientists had with them last night. Before we could do anything with the disk, we heard a door open. Batman looked at me.

"Did you bring anyone with you?"

I shook my head. "Did you?" I asked him. He just gave me an exasperated look before going over and looking towards the door. I followed him and saw the old scientist and the woman scientist from yesterday walking out of a room. After making sure they had left, we looked at each other, knowing that we had to go see what was in the room. We both jumped down and headed towards the door, him in front of me. He opened the door and shined his flashlight in. At first it looked like a normal room with a filing cabinet and desk, but then as he moved the beam of light closer to the right, I realized that this room was actually terrifying. In the right corner were these weird red and purple pod things. And even creepier, there were people inside of the pods.

"Cause that isn't creepy or anything." I said to Batman. He ignored me and handed me the flashlight. He pulled out his batarang and cut the pod open. Inside that pod was the body of the old man scientist we had seen earlier. If this is the real old man, then what is that thing out there? "Is he alive?" I asked Batman.

He checked for the man's pulse, and the man started stirring. That's when I heard the growling. My eyes widened and I looked over at Batman. I shined the light over to where I heard the growling and I saw a dog. It wasn't that big of a dog, but it looked like it could do some damage if it got ahold of you. "Nice doggy?" I asked it. Then it attacked me. It jumped onto my body and sent me sprawling back towards the wall. The flashlight flew out of my hand and I tried pushing the dog off of me. It kept trying to bite my face off but I finally was able to get my feet under it and I kicked it off. Batman ran over to me and grabbed my arm and yanked me up onto my feet. The dog hit the desk, but it landed on its feet.

"Don't just stand there!" Batman yelled at me. Oh, right, I have super powers. As the dog started walking back towards us, Batman jumped up and swung himself over to the top of the wall while I made a disk under my feet and floated up to as high as he was. At first the dog just stood at the base of the wall growling, and I thought we had it beat…that is until it started walking up on the wall. Not only was it walking on the wall, but it changed its form. It wasn't just a dog anymore, it looked like the discs the fake scientists had yesterday. It was white and black with spots of red on it.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." I said. The dog jumped up and hit Batman off of the pipe he was perched on. He looked like he would land okay, but then he hit his head on the way down. I quickly used my staff to make an ice platform for him to land on. He landed on my platform and I lowered it to the ground. Apparently the alien dog monster thing didn't like me doing that, so it jumped up at me and knocked me all the way down to the ground. The concrete ground. That was really hard. And hurt. A lot. Groaning I rolled over to see the dog make claws with his paw and swing it at me. He got ahold of me and threw me back, through a window and into a shelf, which proceeded to fall right on top of me. I picked my head up and saw the dog advancing on Batman. I tried to get up, but I felt a sharp pain in my head, and everything went black.

When I started to come around, the first thing I heard was an annoying beeping sound. I heard someone say 'no', and then a huge crash. I picked my head up and saw Superman standing over Batman. "A little help over here?" I grumbled out. Superman looked over at me and his eyes widened.

"Evie!" He rushed over and lifted the shelf off of my back. I slowly stood up and started moving all of my limbs to try and get the stiffness out of my sore muscles and to make sure nothing was broken. "Evie, what are you doing here?" Superman asked me.

I was rubbing my head and replied, "I was helping Batman with the whole weird scientist thing when…oh no, Batman!" I ran over to where he was and saw that he was out cold. "Is he okay?" I asked Superman.

"I think he is, just unconscious." Superman picked Batman up, "Hold on, did you say you were helping Batman?" he asked me but before I could reply a bright light flew past the window of our building. We both turned and watched the fire ball soar past the window, and head straight for the park. I turned to Superman, "We should probably go check that out." Without a word, Superman started to fly out of the building. I picked up my staff, made a disk, and flew up next to him. We both flew over the fireball and saw that it was massive. It took up an entire intersection!

Batman started to stir, and I looked at Superman. "Here, give him to me. There's an ambulance right over there. I'll have him get looked at and you go and make sure that no one got hurt down there." I don't know where that bossy side of me came out, and I honestly thought that Superman was going to call me out on it, saying that he doesn't even know me. Instead, he just nodded, handed Batman over to me and flew down to the crash site. I took Batman over to the ambulance. "Hey! I need some help over here!" I lowered myself down to the ground and stepped off of my disc, half carrying, half dragging Batman towards the gurney.

"What happened?" the paramedic asked me.

Well you see, some weird monster alien dog attacked him and he was probably thrown through a wall. "I'm not sure, just help him." I told her. I wasn't really lying, I was unconscious myself when he was attacked. I stepped back onto my disk and flew over to the crash site. By that time, plenty of police and fire equipment had arrived on the scene. I decided to try and help put the fire out before it could spread to the buildings on the corner closest to it. I started pulling some water from my staff and I expanded it, so it was a large stream pouring on the fire. Soon the firefighters had their hoses on it as well and the fire was soon out, and a steaming giant rock was left in its place.

I tried looking around for superman but I couldn't see him anywhere. Just as I was about to go check on Batman, the rock let out even more steam and the ground started shaking. Well that isn't good, maybe it's just the ground settling and everything is going to be okay. I spoke too soon, because then something popped out of the rock. At first it looked like the leg of a praying mantis, but then the whole body followed, and it didn't look like a praying mantis anymore. Instead, well, I don't even know how to compare it to anything. Two more legs popped out and then, what I assume to be the body followed. At least the legs had a definition to it, because the body just looked like a giant red spotted blob. The front of the body looked like it had an eye on it, but I wasn't too sure. After I heard a reporter behind me ask what it was, the 'eye' of the alien narrowed and shot a laser beam right at a police car, which created an explosion. I looked up and saw Superman fly straight for the eye of the creature but he was hit with the beam and he was thrown backwards. He crash landed into a building and landed in a crater in the middle of the road. That's when pandemonium happened.

Civilians started running around screaming, police were shooting at it, and the monster stepped on a firetruck, causing another explosion. Well Evie, you wanted to help people, now's your chance. I took a deep breath and jumped on my ice disc with my staff in hand. The creature was about to step on yet another truck, but before it could let out its beam I threw up a thick wall of ice in front of the beam. At first the beam wasn't able to get through, but it started melting through my ice. I tried making the ice thick enough, but I couldn't keep up to the rate it was melting at. When the beam finally made it thorough, the force of it pushed me back. I was sent flying, but I righted myself on top of my disc and looked to see what else I could do to stop this monster.

I could see that the monster was about to shoot another beam out of itself, so I tried building the wall again, to see if I could delay the explosion so people could get out of the way. As I was building the wall, I heard the sound of an engine behind me. I looked up and saw Batman's bat-jet flying towards us. I saw missiles lower from the bottom half of the jet, and realized what he was about to do. I flew away from the monster just as Batman released the missiles. When the smoke cleared, we all saw that the missiles did nothing but piss the monster off even more, and it started shooting at Batman's jet.

Luckily he was able to weave in and out of the way before he became a pile of ashes from one of those beams. I decided that I needed to try a different strategy. I focused on trying to freeze the legs off of this thing, literally. If it couldn't walk then it would have a smaller area of destruction and it wouldn't be able to hurt as many people. Just as I started freezing the first leg, Superman flew up and started punching the creature. He was able to knock it over and land on top of it before he was blown backwards again. Just as the creature started to get up, Batman flew by and fired two more missiles at it, which again, did absolutely nothing. Then it noticed what I was doing, and literally kicked me out of the way. I landed back and rolled out of the way before it could step on me.

Just then the ground rumbled some more and more creatures came out of the rock. Great, we couldn't deal with one, now we have two more. At this point I stopped trying to stop the attacks and started working on getting people out. I used my water to lift manipulate cars and other debris out of the way so people would have a fairly cleared path to run on. Just I finished that job, I looked up saw military grade jets flying in with Batman. Finally. I mean, it's been at least 20 minutes of the three of us doing this by ourselves, you would think there would be a quicker response time for an alien attack.

It seemed as if nothing could work on this thing. The jets missiles, the armies best tanks, even Batman couldn't put a dent in this thing. All we were doing was pissing it off. Just as I had finished putting out a building fire, I heard a jet really close to where I was. I looked up and saw that it was Batman's jet hovering right above me. I flew up to its level.

The cockpit door opened and I saw Batman sitting inside. "You have exactly 10 seconds to decide if you are coming with me or not." Batman said looking at me.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, quite out of breath. "Why are we running away?"

He glared at me. "We aren't running away. The military came in, they can take their turn. I want to know why Superman flew away, and if you're willing to come with me to find out. Now you have five seconds to decide."

I just looked at him, and then looked back at the creatures. Figuring there was nothing else I could do, I folded up my staff, stepped off my ice disc, and got into the bat-jet. He closed the cockpit and flew off. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Batman spoke again. "Thanks."

I just stared at him, and seeing as I was sitting behind him, I was pretty thankful that he couldn't see the look of confusion on my face. "Ummm, what are you thanking me for?"

He turned his head so he could see me a little. "You weren't asked to go and fight those creatures. It wasn't your responsibility but you did it anyway."

I got a tiny smile on my face. "Well, seeing as I'm human, I live on this planet, and I have powers that can make a difference, I see it as my responsibility to help others. Especially in situations like that." Batman didn't say anything, but I saw his head nod and he looked straight forward again. It was silent for the rest of the trip.

After a little bit I saw that Batman had lowered the jet, and it was easier to see the ground. A trail of debris was laying there. And by debris I don't mean trash, I'm talking tanks that are ripped apart. "I think we found Superman." We landed in what looked like to be an empty hangar and we got out. We could see a giant hole in the building. Without saying anything we jumped down form the jet and walked through the hole into the building. We stood there looking around, when Batman saw an open door. He pushed the door in and we saw more of those creepy pod things. I stood by the door, not wanting to see anymore. I heard a muffled banging sound, and apparently Batman had heard it too. We followed the sound to a hallway where we saw Superman trying to punch is way through a door. I stepped forward to call out to him, but Batman put a hand on my arm. Confused, I looked up at him and he looked back at me. With a calm look on his face, he pulled a batarang out and threw it so it hit the metal right next to where Superman was punching.

"Hold it, Superman! Destroying government property isn't your style." Batman called out to him. I just stood next to him and wondered what was happening. I am in way over my head here, I thought to myself. Batman stepped forward into the room and I followed him.

"Superman, what's going on?" I asked him quietly. If he had gone crazy, I didn't want to be the one to set him off with a really loud voice.

"See for yourself." Superman said. He bent over and lifted the door off of the ground and threw it to the side. We walked into the room, and I saw that it was filled with monitors. It appeared to have different biological structures and information on them, almost like it was a hospital. I kept following the two superheroes towards the back of the room to a locked door. Superman threw it open like it was made with tissue paper and we walked in. This day kept getting weirder and weirder. There was a green, well, man I guess you could call it? He was strapped to a large machine that was connected to his arms and feet.

"Not to sound stupid, but uhhh, what is that?" I asked both men.

Superman turned around to us. "Mankind's only hope."

"Well gee, thanks for all of that information there. You'll have to give us a minute to process it all." I said to them. Did I mention I was really sarcastic? I glanced over at Batman and saw that he almost had a smirk on his face. It might be bold to say, but I think if we weren't having one of the craziest day's planet Earth had ever seen, I might have gotten a full smirk out of him.

Superman walked over to the control panel next to the green man and let him down. I took half a step back and put a hand on my staff that was hanging at my side. I have had enough aliens for one day. Superman caught the man as fell down. "He has been trying to reach to me telepathically but that stasis field interfered. When his message finally broke through, I came to rescue him."

Batman took a few steps forward and I cautiously followed him. I decided to speak up next. "What exactly is he doing here?"

The orange eyed man looked up at us, and even though his mouth didn't move, I could hear his answer plain as day. "The invasion." I heard his voice in my mind, and it was the strangest thing I had ever been through. Besides getting water powers of course. I heard his voice in my head again. "I came to warn you, but I was captured and imprisoned here. They wouldn't listen."  
I snorted. "Yeah, big surprise." The alien looked at me then back at Batman.

"I sense you do not trust me." I heard again, it wasn't stated as a question. "Perhaps this will help." I watched him as he changed his physique. Now he stood and looked more like a man, with a long blue high collared cape, blue shorts, and a red x going across his abdomen. Batman took a step back, but I stayed where I was. The alien took a step towards him. "I am J'onn J'onzz." He held out his hand for Batman. Geez, this guy is an alien and he still has better manners than boys I have dated I thought. Batman just glared at the man, the same way he glared at me when he first met me. Was that only 24 hours ago? Boy, has it been a long day. Superman stepped in between them.

"Don't take it personally J'onn. He doesn't trust anyone." Superman said.

"A wise policy." J'onn said. J'onn turned to me next and held out is hand. Oh, why not, I thought.

"I'm Evelyn, but everyone calls me Evie." I shook his hand. I honestly thought it was going to be cold, but instead it felt like a regular human hand, soft and warm. I gave the alien a smile and he gave a small one back. Once he let go, we all started to walk out of the building with Superman talking.

"We'll need to contact the joint chiefs right away." He was saying just as we stepped back outside through the hole in the wall. Suddenly we were blinded by spotlights, and a voice yelling at us. I looked up and saw that there was about 30 men pointing guns at us.

"You're trespassing in a restricted area." The leader said. Suddenly as I was looking at all of the men, a thought struck me. As Superman was talking with the leader I leaned towards Batman.

"How many pods do you think were in that room we saw?" I asked him.

"Probably about 30." He replied. From the sound of his voice, I knew he was following my same trail of thought.

I nodded. "I was afraid of that." Knowing that a fight was coming, I pulled my staff out and extended it to its full length. I looked back up and saw the general and all the soldiers morph into giant white lumps with black and red in it, the same thing the dog was made out of earlier. I gripped my staff harder and murmured, "Here we go again."

They started shooting at us first, and we ducked behind a jeep, well, Batman, J'onn, and I did. Superman got hit and was thrown back.

"Stay down." Batman told both of us. He pulled out a batarang and threw it at the creatures, and it made a pretty big explosion that looked like it knocked a few of the creatures over. As the smoke was clearing, I looked behind Batman and saw a creature getting ready to shoot him.

"Behind you!" J'onn shouted. He then proceeded to become transparent and, like a ghost, flew through Batman to try and stop the alien from shooting at us. J'onn was hit with the beam and was sent to the ground. I made an ice dagger with my hand and threw it into, what looked like, the aliens body. I turned towards J'onn and was about to ask him if he was okay, but Batman beat me too it. J'onn let out a low groan and shook his head.

"Help me carry him." Batman told me. I quickly folded my staff and grabbed a side of J'onn's body while Batman was on the other side. "Hang on!" Batman told him. I was going to try and put a wall of ice between us and the creatures, but I didn't have too, because there was a tank in our way.

Superman was standing between the creatures and us with a tank on his back. "Get him to safety, I'll cover you." At first I was hesitant to leave him by himself to fight, but I figured that he was practically indestructible, and lifting tanks was probably only a warm-up for him. Batman and I carried J'onn to the jet and Batman put him into the seat behind him. You know, the only other seat besides Batman's? Well it doesn't look like I'll be getting out here anytime soon.

I glanced over at Batman. "Get him out of here." He glanced over at me and even through the mask, I could tell he was raising an eyebrow at me. "Seriously Bats, get him out of here. I'll stay and help Superman." At this point he fully turned towards me.

"This isn't your responsibility." He told me. I rolled my eyes at him.

"It's my responsibility now. Would you just go?" I guess he got the point, because he walked over the open cockpit and got in.

I was about to turn away when he asked, "Since when did you start calling me Bats?" I looked over my shoulder. "I figured I saved you twice now. In my book that deserves a free pass to call you whatever I want." I smirked and didn't stay to hear what he had to say to that. I ran back towards superman and started throwing ice pieces at the creatures to try and slow them down. I heard the jet engines start and then fly away. Superman looked back to make sure the jet was clear and threw the tank towards the creatures.

"Need a lift?" He asked me, holding out his hand. I was pretty tired, so I nodded and he grabbed my arm and flew us the direction the bat jet went. I was just about to close my eyes when I heard the sound of more engines. I looked up and saw that the weird creature, alien things also had jets. Great, what will they have next? Blimps? I started shooting water at two of their planes, and then I froze the water, making the aircraft too heavy to fly. It dropped to the ground, and then exploded. I started flying and followed the bat jet, since the planes seem to be focused on that. All of a sudden, one of the alien's beams hit the jet, and caught the wing on fire. Once I shot down another plane I raced over to try and help the jet, but when I flew around the corner, I saw that it was encased in a bright green glow. I looked up and there was Green Lantern, standing on the cliff and holding the jet in his ring's beam. Two jets started shooting at Green Lantern, but before anybody could do anything to try and help him, a girl with giant wings coming out of her back flew over and smashed the planes with an electrified mace. I wish I had one of those, I thought. I flew over to the edge of a cliff, close to where the bat jet was being landed by Green Lantern. I stepped off my disc and walked over to the jet. Batman was stepping out of the jet.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. I was expecting a glare from him, but then he surprised me by answering.

"I'm fine. Are you?" I didn't think he actually cared, but I decided to answer anyway.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I stood next to him and looked up at the battle that the flying heroes were fighting above us. I heard a noise behind us and I turned around. That's when I saw a falling plane heading directly toward us. "Look out!" I shouted to Batman and I pushed him out of the way of the plane. I held my hands up and summoned water from the river right behind us. I formed the water into a giant dome around me, and then froze it so it was a giant wall of ice. I could watch as the plane hit my dome, and it slipped off of the surface and fell off of the cliff onto the ground below. I melted the dome back into my staff and started coughing due to the smoke that filled my lungs. I looked around and saw that Batman was just staring at me. He walked over to me, and for some reason he looked angry.

"What exactly was that?" he growled. Great, now he is mad at me again. He had no right to be angry at me, I practically just saved his life.

"Well I think that was a giant ice dome that covered me and then caused the plane to fall off of the cliff." I sassed right back at him.

He just stared at me more. "Why did you push me out of the way? Couldn't you have just put the ice over me too?"

I hesitated before I answered. "Oh, umm well, I didn't know if the ice would hold the weight of the plane. I didn't want to take a chance of you being stuck with me." I told him, rubbing the back of my neck again. He just continued to stare at me until he saw the girl with wings shot down. We looked at her as she landed on a rocky platform, and then another woman in red boots, star bottoms, and a red halter top jumped in front of her, deflected the beams, and shot down a plane. I turned to Batman, "Who is that?" He had an eyebrow raised and he just shrugged. "Gee, thanks for all the information." I mumbled under my breath. By that time everyone had started to fly over to where we were. Well, almost everyone. I saw a red blur race up the mountain and I knew it was the Flash. He was holding a piece of Batman's jet in his arms.

"Hey Bats! I think you dropped this." He yelled over to us and stood holding it in his arms. He then looked over to the new girl (not me, thank God) and his jaw dropped. "Whoa. Where have you been all my life?" He shoved the piece of jet at Batman and fully turned towards the girl.

"Themyscira." She replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bless you." I mumbled. I'm pretty sure Superman heard me and he sent me a small smile.

"Huh?" Flash said. He was probably wondering what exactly this chick was babbling about, just like the rest of us.

"The home of the Amazons." Hawkgirl said as she landed. Well, I guess not everyone was as confused as I was. "I always thought it was merely a legend."

"I assure you, it's as real as the ground on which we stand. I am Diana, Princess of the Amazons." Oh great, a princess I snorted to myself. I already wasn't a fan of this girl. I don't know why, but she just irked me. Maybe it was because she seemed like she was some preppy school girl, and I never got along with them. Apparently not everyone thought the same as I did.

"Pinch me, I must me dreaming." Flash dreamily said. "Ow!" Superman had elbowed him, which must have felt like being hit with a brick.

Diana continued her explanation. "Themyscira is protected by the Gods, but I could not idly stand by while the rest of the world was in danger."

Superman stepped forward. "It was lucky you showed up when you did."

"No, not luck. I telepathically summoned them." J'onn said. "The only ones I didn't have to summon was Superman, Batman, and Evie." I looked up at him when he said my name, and apparently everyone else did too. They must have been too blinded by Diana's spotlight to notice me standing right next to Batman.

I figured that I should probably say something. "Um, hey guys." Everyone continued to look at me and nobody said anything. Great, it's like the first day of school all over again. Then Green Lantern spoke up.

"Who are you?"

I cleared my throat and clasped my hands in front of my body. "My name is Evie. I was helping out earlier before you guys came. Thanks for your help, by the way." I figured if they were about to send me home I might as well thank them. To my surprise, nobody asked me to leave, they all just nodded their heads and stopped staring at me.

"Look, I'm usually pretty quick on the uptake, but would someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?" Flash asked looking so confused. I almost felt really bad for him, until I remembered that he hadn't been fighting aliens all day. Then I didn't feel as bad. We all turned to J'onn for some answers. He looked down and began to explain the entire situation at first he explained where he was from, and how Superman had found him. It seemed like he needed to find the next words to say and Superman sensed this and took the wing of Batman's jet and reattached it using his heat vision. When he came back to the circle, Diana spoke up.

"So, J'onn J'onzz, you came from Mars to warn us?" she asked. Flash and Green lantern bickered for a minute before J'onn spoke.  
"We first encountered them a thousand of your Earth years ago. It was a Golden Age. Our Martian Civilization was at the height of its peace and prosperity. And then…they arrived. Where they came from, no one knew, but they were determined to make our planet their own. We Martians were peaceful people, and the taking of any life was abhorrent to us. But we quickly learned the ways of war. For centuries, the battles raged on. Every trace of our once-great civilization was obliterated. We fought valiantly, but the invaders were parasites who fed on our psychic energy. As we grew weaker, they grew stronger. They even absorbed our shape-changing abilities.

Finally, a small group of Martian survivors planned one final, desperate attack. Inside their underground stronghold, we unleashed a powerful nerve gas which paralyzed them. The attack was successful, but he cost was dear. I was the only survivor, the last of my kind. I sealed up their citadel to keep them in a constant state of suspended animation. For over 500 years, I stood guard over them. But then, while I was in a hibernation cycle, astronauts from Earth unsealed the stronghold and accidentally revived the invaders."

"Wait. Those astronauts never said anything about finding life on Mars." Flash objected.

Green lantern snorted. "Some pencil pusher in Washington probably decided it should be classified information."

J'onn walked forward. "With all the Martians gone, the invaders had nothing left to feed upon, so they turned their sights to Earth. I narrowly escaped and came here to warn of the coming danger."

I quietly asked him, "J'onn, so you've been by yourself this whole time?" That sounds terrible. When I lost my parents and sister, I was so sad, but at least I wasn't the last human. I can't even begin to wonder how that feels. He merely looked at me and gave a small nod. His face was cleared of any emotion, but I could see the sadness and despair in his eyes.

He looked at Superman. "When I was held against my will, the invaders sent advance agents to disable Earth's defenses."

"That's why they sabotaged the deep-space monitoring network…so we couldn't detect their activities." Batman finally spoke up.

"We've got to stop them before it's too late." Green Lantern said.

"It may already be too late." J'onn said and he turned away.

"Well I can see that he is an optimist." I said. Flash looked over to me and chuckled.

Then we all heard a deep rumble, almost like it was a machine that was starting up. We all looked over the ridge toward the city, where the noise was coming from.

"What was that?" Diana asked.

"It's begun." J'onn ominously replied. We walked toward the edge of the cliff and watched as the thick, black smoke rose up to the sky, and lightning cracked through the clouds.

"What are they doing?" Hawkgirl asked.

"The invaders are nocturnal. They want to block out the sun so they can live in perpetual darkness." That doesn't sound so bad to me. I mean the sun is okay and all but I definitely prefer the night. That sounds perfect, besides the fact that aliens were causing this.

Flash turned to Batman. "Friends of yours?" he asked.

"It's no joke." Batman said.

Flash walked over to J'onn. "What's the big problem? Can't you just whip up another batch of that nerve gas?" It couldn't be that easy.

"Unfortunately, no. The gas can only be made from a rare Martian plant. I brought a sample with me, but it was destroyed when I was captured."

Flash chuckled nervously. "Uhh, so what's plan B?"

"We'll have to take out those factories." Diana said. As much as I wasn't really a fan of hers, I had to agree.

"It sounds like once the smoke is taken care of, we will have a much easier time dealing with them in the morning once the sun rises." I said. The mood seemed to lighten a little bit with that one glimmer of hope.

And then the mood was ruined when Green Lantern opened his mouth and looked at Diana. "Lady, this is no job for amateurs. You or the human ice cube maker over there." I'm sorry, was he seriously talking about me? I looked at him and crossed my arms just as Diana laid into him.

"We Amazons are warriors born! Want to test me?" A small part of me was glad that she had stepped up for herself. Now it was my turn.

"I don't know who you're calling an ice cube maker, green bean, but for your information my powers are plenty useful. And I was part of naval special ops. So if you really want to see what it is I can do, you should keep talking." I practically growled at him. I took a step forward and lucky for Green Lantern, Superman stepped in.

"Let's not fight among ourselves." He said stepping in between Diana, Green Lantern, and I. "John, we're going to need all the help we can get."

John, as I just learned that's what his name was, turned away and said to Diana, "Sorry…your highness." He then looked at me. "And you too, frosty." I almost lunged at him but Batman grabbed my shoulder and gave me a look that said 'please don't do anything stupid'.

"Fine. But he's asking for it." I told Batman. Green lantern then stepped forward into the middle of the little circle we had made.

"Tactically, we will have many objectives. So we'll need to split into teams." Flash rushed forward and put a hand over Diana's shoulders.

"Dibs on the Amazon." He grinned. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next thing I know, I am on a team with the Flash and Green Lantern. I'm pretty sure Batman had something to do with this though. In some sick and twisted way he probably thought it was funny. Flash was running on the water, Green Lantern was flying, and I was surfing right over top of the water. I had never actually tried doing that before but it was fun, especially when a wave would come up and hit the bottom of my disk because it would throw me into the air a couple feet. I wasn't really listening to what Flash and Green Lantern were talking about, I was off in my own little world, but then I heard Flash say really loud, "You are no fun."

"This isn't supposed to be fun. We've got a job to do, and we will do it better without distractions. Understood?"

"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya." Flash said

"I'll try not to get offended over here. I mean, I know my legs don't go on forever like hers do but good grief, I still hope I can turn a few heads." I yelled back over the wind whipping past my ears. Green Lantern ignored my when Flash just looked over at me and grinned. Then he ran forward and caused a wave of water to wash over me. Oh, it is so on. I grinned to myself and flew even faster to try and catch up with him. We finally saw land in the distance, and I was pretty relieved. At least our part of the plan would soon be over. We went up to a cliff so we could overlook the machine that was pumping smoke into the air.

Green Lantern crouched down and tried to tell us our plan. "That's our target. Now, listen up. Here's the plan." But before he could say another word Flash was already standing up.

"What plan? We kick their butts, right? Let's get this over with." And before either of us could stop him, he had already raced down the cliff side. Great. I looked over at Green Lantern and saw that his angry face could almost rival Batman's. Almost. We stayed where we were and decided to watch and see what Flash did. He ran down to where the tall alien walkers were and signaled for them. They noticed him and started shooting at him, but he was too quick for the beams to hit their intended target. As Flash was running away, he tripped. Yes, the idiot tripped on a rock and he landed in what looked like brown sludge. He had trouble getting out of it and I knew it was our turn to go down and save him. I glanced over at Green Lantern, then I hopped on an ice disk and flew down the cliff. I could hear Green Lantern was right behind me.

"You help Flash, and I'll make sure you guys don't get hit." I yelled back to him. I didn't give him a chance to reply before I went over to one of the creatures. I pulled out my staff, and froze over the part of its head that shot out the beams. Then when it was melting the thick ice, I flew all around throwing ice daggers and hoping I could find a weak spot. I had to go back up and refreeze the shooting hole when an idea occurred to me. I landed on the ground and made a giant ice path right where the creature was walking. The creature's feet slid apart like a deer on an ice pond. From that point I figured that it would do a lot less damage than form 40 feet up in the air. When it fell, it look like it broke. It wasn't moving and it wasn't shooting bolts from its head. I looked over to Green Lantern and saw that he had shot the leg off of another creature, just like I had. Lantern went over to get Flash out and I floated next to them.

"I hope the others are having better luck than we are." Green Lantern said. I don't know how much luckier we could get at this point, we had already taken down two monsters and nobody was hurt. I would call that good luck. I sat there and looked around for more creatures as Green Lantern chewed out Flash. I wasn't the Lantern's biggest fan, but I did think Flash deserved most of his verbal assault. Just then I saw a beam head towards Lantern.

"Look out!" I put an ice shield around us and the beam just made a small dent in it. We all looked up and saw two more of the creatures coming towards us. "Aim for the legs…that seems to be their weakness!" I called out to the boys. I saw that Lantern had created a shield around him but one of the creatures created a smoke bomb and threw it towards him. It penetrated his shield and sent him into a coughing fit and then he was unconscious on the ground.

"Evie, we have to go!" Flash called to me as he picked up Green Lantern and ran towards the woods. I decided that he was right and there wasn't much I would be able to do by myself. I followed Flash into the woods and didn't look back to see if the monsters were following us.

After running for a little while, Flash started to slow down. I stopped and landed next to him. "What's wrong?" Flash had a glazed look over his face, like he was thinking of something else.

"I'm getting a message from J'onn. He wants us back in Metropolis."

I frowned a little. "But we haven't finished our mission."

Flash just shrugged. "He says it's pretty urgent. I would just head back now." Just as he finished saying that, Green Lantern started waking up. "Wake up buddy. J'onn needs us back now." Flash said, putting Lantern on his feet and steadying him. At first I thought that he was going to argue, but he just stood and nodded his head.

"Alright then, let's go." We all flew (well Flash ran) back to Metropolis and we only stopped a couple of times to help save trapped civilians. When we got back, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Downtown Metropolis was in ruins. Buildings were on fire, people were running around stealing things, completely breaking the law, and cars were overturned. After Green Lantern helped some kids who were trapped under some concrete, we went up to the building Diana and J'onn were on.

"Sorry we're late, we had to stop and help some civilians." Green Lantern said.

"What'd you call us back for?" Flash asked her. I stood in the back and counted who was there. Why were we missing three people?

Diana walked forward and pointed to the machine in the center of town. "Superman's been captured. He's trapped somewhere inside there with Hawkgirl." As she said that, I felt my stomach sink. If they were there, then where was Batman?

"If those two are in there, then where is Batman? Wasn't he with you guys?" I asked her and J'onn. Diana didn't say anything, and it was J'onn who spoke first.

"He acted heroically…to the very end." My heart clenched when he said that. He couldn't mean that he had died, could he? I mean, I know I didn't know him that well, but I was so sad thinking that he really was gone. Tears started welling up in my eyes but I knew I couldn't let them fall. Not yet.

Flash turned around and asked, "The bat's gone?" He sounded just as upset as I felt.

Diana lifted her head up. "He was a true warrior." Oh please, you only knew him for an hour. You have no idea who he is. But did I, either? I thought for a second and figured I was more qualified to mourn him. I had only known him for about 48 hours, but at least I wasn't talking about him like we had been best friends for years. Of course, this could just be my dislike for Diana talking.

John walked towards the edge of the roof. "This is not good, definitely not good." Well no shit Sherlock. Of course this isn't good I thought bitterly. We decided that we needed to discuss a plan. After a couple minutes of arguing we finally came up with one. We all waited behind a piece of pavement that had become undone . I crouched down next to J'onn with my staff in hand. I must have tuned out, because the next thing I heard is J'onn saying that the Imperium is coming.

"The who?" Flash asked him.

"The supreme intelligence that controls these invaders. We have met before." I heard Flash asking John if he could trust the "space case" as he not so quietly put it. Geez Flash, could you whisper any louder? The man is sitting right here.

Before anyone could say anything, Green Lantern spoke up. "Okay, we're going in. Flash, create a diversion. Evie and Diana, watch my back." I looked up at Green Lantern with a raised eyebrow. He just insulted me hours before, now he wants me to watch his back?

"You want to rely on an amateur?" Diana asked him.  
"Yeah G.L, shouldn't I be getting you guys ice cold drinks or something?" I sarcastically asked him. I decided if the guy wasn't going to apologize, I would at least give him Hell. He looked at both of us.

"Let's move." He grumbled out. I smirked. Maybe I could guilt him into giving an apology. Flash ran over to the other side of the creature and we all flew up and over it. Flash picked up a rock and threw it, and waved his arms.

"Tag! You're it!" he said, and like the mature superhero he is, he blew a raspberry at an alien. The alien started shooting at him, but Flash ran off. As he continued to taunt the alien, he somehow was able to make it explode. He may act like a three year old, but at least he knows what he's doing I thought. The rest of us had snuck past the guards and flew up to the top of the machine, where there was a hole we could fly in.

"Where are they being held?" Green Lantern asked J'onn.

"This way." John replied and flew to the right and down a new passage. We landed and had just started walking when Flash caught up to us.

"Hope I didn't keep you." He said, I was going to say something back to him but then we heard the aliens talking. We stopped walking and pushed ourselves against the wall. J'onn peeked around and then told us to wait where we were. We all watched as he transformed into one of the aliens and ran out to talk to them. He must have said the right thing because the aliens started running, but they were running towards our direction. I gripped my staff and got ready to fight them but there was no need. Before the aliens could fully stop and look at us, J'onn sank up through the floor and put his hands through the aliens' chests. They fell to the floor with a thud and J'onn told us to go with him.

"Is it just me, or does he creep you out too?" Flash asked. I just shrugged my shoulders. Yeah, some of the things he said was weird, but we also had to remember that he wasn't from around here.

We all walked out and followed J'onn. He stopped and said "We are close now." He walked up to a wall and put his hand on it. "I sense they are somewhere beyond these walls." Diana stepped up and tried to push the wall down with her bare hands.

"It's no use. We'll have to find another way." Well I honestly didn't think she was going to be able to do that. The aliens may not look like they have brains, but I don't think they were too dumb. They would have a stronger defense, especially since they were keeping prisoners in there. Green Lantern tried.

"Stand back." He told Diana. He held up his arm and started making a door with his ring.

"We haven't much time left." J'onn warned us. Green Lantern finally go the door made and pushed it open. When it opened up, we saw Superman and Hawkgirl hanging upside from the ceiling and unconscious. Well that's going to give them a headache in the morning. Hawkgirl groaned, but something seemed off. Diana, Flash, and Green Lantern raced forward to try and help them, but I stayed behind with J'onn.

"Guys, something doesn't feel right here." I said. No sooner had I said it, the Superman's and Hawkgirl's eyes opened and they were blood red. I heard the door start to close up behind me, and I ran and tried to stop it, but here was no use. Little vents were created on the walls and a gas started to flow into the room. Within seconds of breathing it in, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I tried taking a deep breath but I felt like I was choking. I collapsed to the ground, and the blackness took over.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

When I woke up, my feet and hands were stuck in some dried goo. I lifted my head and looked around me. "What the hell was that stuff?" I groaned out. I had had some headaches, mostly when alcohol was involved, but this was the worst I had ever had. My brain felt like it was going to squeeze through my ears and onto the floor. Then I saw that the aliens were gathered above us.

"Earth's mightiest heroes. Welcome." The alien in the front said. At least I'm assuming it was him, these guys don't exactly have mouths.

"I'm sorry, was he just speaking English?" I asked. I looked back up and saw that the monster had changed into Senator Carter. "And this is why I hate politics, people." I said.

"Senator Carter." Superman said.

"Unfortunately, the real Carter never returned from Mars." Alien carter told us.

"And you used me to weaken Earth' defenses."

"You were so eager to cooperate." Alien Carter taunted. "Thanks to you, the humans were totally helpless against us."

At this point, Superman was straining against this goop we were stuck in. "It's not over yet." He said.

A large whole opened up in the ceiling and we could all see through to the outside, where it was all smoky and black. "Wrong again, Superman." Alien Carter said. A small spaceship was heading right for the hole that was formed in the ceiling. The craft lowered and hovered right above the aliens. "All hail the Imperium!" Alien Carter said, as he and the other aliens bowed. A ventilation shaft opened and blew steam out. When the steam cleared there was a giant purple and black blob with tentacles hanging off it floating above the ground. This must be the Imperium.

"I don't know about you guys, but I am so tired to seeing shapeless blobs today. If aliens are going to invade us, they should at least have a shape." I said. Who knew if anyone was listening, but when I get nervous, I ramble.

The king of the blob people floated forward directly in front of J'onn. "J'onn J'onzz. It's been a long time." It said. At least this one spoke English instead of the garbage the other ones spoke. It raised its tentacles up towards the air, and J'onn's goop floated up in the air and unwrapped him so he was standing in front of the Imperium. While J'onn was getting steady on his feet, two guards electrocuted him with poles. J'onn stood there groaning in pain, and we could only stand there and watch. J'onn transformed back to his original alien form, and fell to the ground. "Much better," the Imperium said. "You have defied us for centuries."

J'onn slowly lifted his head up. "And I will never bow before you or any of your kind." He somehow found enough strength to get to his feet.

The Imperium waved his tentacles. "Then we will personally see to finishing what should have been accomplished long ago…the elimination of the last Martian. The tentacles shot forward towards J'onn and literally entered his skin. You could see the tentacles climbing up through his skin into his body. The grossest one was the one that entered through his face and was slowly reaching up to his brain. J'onn was standing there screaming as his body was invaded. The tentacles retracted into the Imperium and J'onn was forced inside the blob itself. We all watched in complete disbelief at the scene before us. Through the flashes of lightning we could see J'onn struggling to get free from the giant blob, but there was no use.

At this point we were all trying to get out of our restraints and go help him. "Let go of him you filthy…" Superman started saying, but his voice was drowned out by the Imperium's.

"Yield to us, J'onn J'onzz."

"Never!" J'onn yelled back. He had more strength than I did. The second those tentacles would have entered me, I would have been done. I probably would have agreed to do anything.

"Why do you resist? Embrace this truth. After all these years, you have finally lost." The great blob king said. The next thing I know, blob king is freaking out. "You are hiding something. A secret deep in the recesses of your mind. Is this another of your Martian tricks? What are you hiding?"

"Now!" J'onn yelled. Um, I hope he isn't talking to us, because we are not in a position to do anything at the moment. An explosion sounded right behind me, and I craned my neck to see what it was. Smoke was coming off of a red pod that looked like it had a crystal or rock in it. When the smoke cleared, there was none other than Batman, standing on the pod. Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

"Bats is alive?" I asked.

"It can't be." Diana said.

"I mentally shielded him so he couldn't be detected." J'onn said. Well he could have at least told us. I was completely filled with relief after seeing that he was okay. I looked up at Batman and watched as he threw some kind of device into the pod he was on. Soon the pod wasn't red anymore, but it was blue. The blue liquid was spreading throughout the room, turning everything that was red, a nice sky blue color.

"What have you done?" Alien carter asked him. I was satisfied to hear that he sounded a little panicked.

"Reversed the ion charge." Bats said.

"The crystal, destroy it!" The Imperium said. The guards fired their beams, but they couldn't penetrate the shield surrounding the crystal. There was a sudden light that shot through the hole in the ceiling and we watched as the clouds dissipated and the blue sky was shining through. Sunlight started to pour in, and I remembered what J'onn said about the creatures being nocturnal. I grinned, they wouldn't be able to stand the sun, let alone try and fight in it. They all started retreating towards the shadows, but the unlucky ones who were stuck in the sun started bubbling and melting. Even the Imperium was starting to melt, and that gave J'onn a big enough window to push himself through and escape. He grabbed the tentacles and dragged the Imperium into the sunlight.

"You live underground and shun the light. Why? Does it burn your pale, putrid skin?" J'onn asked him. The Imperium continued to bubble and scream while he struggled to get away from the sun.

"Oooh, that's one nasty sunburn." Flash said. I pulled a disgusted face, I would hate to have to clean this mess up. Batman finally swung down and started burning off the restraints holding us down, he started with Diana.

"Ultraviolet rays, coming from the depths of space the invaders have no resistance to our sun's radiation." He explained. Superman looked up at the sun and he was able to use his heat vision. He cut off his goop and started helping the others.

"So you did find that weakness after all." Diana told him. Behind us the Imperium started yelling at his people to destroy us. Yeah, fat chance that is happening now. The guard started shooting at us, but Superman lifted a flap of the floor and lifted it up and made a makeshift shield. Superman then turned and beamed Hawkgirl and Lantern out, while Diana got Flash out. Batman came over to me next and started breaking my bonds.

"You had us scared for a minute there." I told him. He just looked at me, but I thought I could see a hint of a smile on his face. He got me out and I jumped down and started to head towards the fight.

"Evie." Batman called out. I turned around and saw that he was holding my staff. "I believe this is yours." He said. I must have dropped it when I was unconscious. I smiled up at him.

"Thanks, Bats." I said. I turned around and used my staff to vault myself up on the higher platform. I took out a couple of the creatures with my staff, and some of them I just used a good old fashioned punch. I punched one, grabbed it and threw it into some of his friends. I felt another one grab me from behind but I flipped myself backwards so that I was sitting on his shoulders, then I elbowed him right on the neck and he crumpled to the floor. I put water over them and froze their legs, so they couldn't move when they woke up. I continued to do this with whatever alien came by me and soon I had a pile of them frozen to the ground.

I looked up and saw that Green Lantern was hovering over me with an impressed look on his face. I sent him a small nod, which he returned. I looked over to see Diana with a lasso in her hand. Are you kidding me, she can throw ropes now too? She lassoed the ship and held it still in the air like it was a balloon. When the ship sent a beam her way, she had to deflect it with her bracelets, and she let the rope go. Hawkgirl flew up and smashed the front of the ship so that it stopped flying, when Diana flew up and grabbed the rope and started pulling the ship back down. While Diana was pulling, Hawkgirl flew up and continued hitting the bridge of the ship so that a giant hole formed in it. The building was starting to fall apart and I flew over to where Flash and Batman were perched on a beam. "Is it time to get out of here yet?" I asked them. Before they could answer, Superman flew by.

"Not yet, we have to get them out of here." He nodded over to where more of those red pods were. I few over there and created a large sheet of ice.

"Here, start putting a few of them on here, I'll get them out." I said. After Superman put about five people in my ice, I flew them up and out of the hole in the ceiling. Thankfully I was able to get them away far enough just as the ship exploded. We all stood up on the roof of a building and watched as the mother-ship flew out of the atmosphere.

We all looked around the city and we knew we still had a lot of work to do. After we got the people who were in the pods down onto the street so the paramedics could look after them, we started taking down the other alien forces that were scattered over the planet. After all of the alien forces were destroyed, we each said our goodbyes and went home. I was asleep before I even walked in the door, and dead to the world before I even jumped up on my bed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

A few days later, I ran into Superman while I was out on a patrol. He asked me to meet him in an empty field that was outside of Metropolis. I agreed, and I met him the next day. Flash was with us, and we all got into a jet that kind of looked like Batman's. We flew up into orbit, and it was the coolest sight I had ever seen. I never thought I would ever go to outer space, but the view was fantastic. Earth looked so peaceful from up here and it was hard to picture the dark smoky atmosphere that had only been present a few days earlier. I looked further ahead of the ship and saw that there was a giant space station there, and we were heading right towards it.

"Is this where we are going?" I asked him. Superman only smiled and nodded. We landed and got out of the jet. The inside of the station was made of silver metal. We got into an elevator and went up to what must have been the control deck. There, there were giant windows and tons of computer monitors. Everyone was standing there. Green Lantern, Hawk Girl, Diana, J'onn, Batman, Superman and Flash. Everyone turned toward us as we entered. "Um, hey guys." I said. Everyone else smiled or gave a small wave. Except Batman, but the fact that he looked at me was a good enough greeting. Green Lantern spoke up first.

"What is this all about?"

Superman sighed and walked away from us. "I once thought I could protect the world by myself, but I was wrong. Working together, we saved the planet. And I believe that if we stayed together as a team we would be a force that could truly work for the ideals of peace and justice."

"What, like a bunch of super friends?" Flash asked.

Superman smirked, "More like a Justice League."

Flash stepped forward. "Do you have any idea how corny that sounds? But, maybe the big guy's got a point. With all of us behind it, it just might work. Count me in."

"Me too." Green Lantern said. They all looked at each other and put their hands in a pile. Hawkgirl walked over and put her hand in.

"I'm in."

Diana looked down. "My mother may not approve, but I find man's world to be intriguing. I'll gladly join." She walked in and put her hand in the pile. I realized that only left me and Bats, who I was standing next to. Everyone in the room turned and looked at us, but I feel like most of them were looking at me. I just stared at them. Was I really ready to try and join another family? Every single foster family that I had been in never really wanted me. And my family that I had made in the military betrayed me and wanted to use me as a weapon. I wasn't sure I could put my faith in another one, just to have it fall apart. Then, I felt a nudge on my arm. I looked up at Batman.

"You know, I looked you up. It doesn't look like you have anywhere else to go." He said quietly. I continued to stare at him, because I didn't know what to say. "I think this will do you some good." He took a step back and left me out in the open. I took a deep breath and considered what he said. I started this journey because I wanted to help people, and this would be the ultimate way for me to do that. I looked up at the group and grinned.

"Oh why not, I'll give you guys a shot." I smiled and walked over, and as corny as it sounds, I put my hand on top of the pile. I looked over my shoulder. "You joining the team, Bats?" I asked him.

He stopped and looked at all of us. "I'm not much of a people person, but when you need help, and you will…call me." I sent him a smile and he turned around and left.

"Understood." Superman said. "Then we are all in agreement."

"Wait, J'onn isn't here." I looked around and realized Diana was right. In my own small panicked moment, I had missed the green Martian. Superman flew up and went to look for him. I don't know what he said to him, but they both flew down a minute later with smiles on their faces. We all walked towards each other, and for the first time in years, I felt content and safe. It was time to move onto the next chapter of my life.


	3. In the Blackest Night

Hey guys! Here is the next chapter of this story. Sorry it took so long to get it uploaded, but I have been a teeny bit busy. Thank you to all of the people who have looked at this story, it seriously means a lot. I still haven't gotten any reviews yet, and I really want some. It will just give me an idea on what else I need to work on and anything specific you guys want to see more of. Hope you enjoy!

~S

I do not own D.C comics or anything else other than my O.C's and my ideas.

Chapter 4: In the Blackest Night

It had been a few weeks since we had established the Justice League, and boy, we had been busy. Not with any more alien incidents or anything, but there was SO much paperwork. I mean honestly, who would have thought that there would have been hours of sitting at a table, doing paperwork for a sort of secret superhero organization? At one point I sat at a table in the Watchtower's cafeteria for six hours, just filling out health forms, profiles, international agreements, and some forms that I have no idea what they were for. I really didn't run into any problems until I got to the Justice League's health form. There was a spot labeled 'Superhero name'. Problem was, I didn't have a superhero name. Everyone in the League just called me Evie, and I haven't had to deal with the media yet. I never really thought about a superhero name. I decided to get up and walk around the watchtower, to see if I could think of a name, or at least a way to get out of it. I pulled my brown hair into a high ponytail and left.

I walked into the dining hall and saw Flash making another frozen coffee drink. He goes through those like they're going out of style. I decided to ask him about my predicament. I walked over to him. "Hey Flash." I called out.

Flash turned around and waved. "Hey Evie, do you want one?" He asked, pointing to his coffee machine.

"Sure." I said, leaning up against the counter. "Hey, I have a problem. Apparently I need a superhero name." Flash looked up at me confused. "Flash, I don't have a superhero name. I've never used anything other than my actual name."

"Oh, I see your problem. Well, just try and think of something that relates to your abilities. I went by Flash because of how fast I can run. It took a little time to get used to the idea and to come up with the name, but I'm sure you'll get there soon." I took a sip of my coffee and thought about what he had just said.

"Yeah, you're right. I'll just have to think about it. Thanks for the advice." I smiled at him. Flash smiled back and zoomed off. I decided to go up to the monitor room and take a shift. It was pretty cool actually and I loved monitor duty. We used cameras that were set up all around the world to see if anything majorly bad was happening. I had always wanted to travel, but I could never afford it, and I never had the chance to go anywhere. Sitting in the monitor room, it felt as if I had been to all of these places, without actually being there. As I was admiring Big Ben, an alarm went off in the Watch Tower. I ran over to the main deck to see J'onn and Flash standing at the window. I could see something fly past, but it was hard to tell what it was. All I knew was whatever those things were, they were heading straight for Earth.

I missed what J'onn had previously said, but I heard what Flash said back to him, "More like an invasion." J'onn looked down at the flying things.

"I'll notify the others." He said in his usual monotonous tone. I followed them to the landing deck where the jet was. We all ran aboard, Hawkgirl and J'onn sitting in the front, with Flash and I sitting behind them. "Wonder Woman is on another case. Superman's dealing with an earthquake, and Batman would only say that he was busy." J'onn said as he started the jet. I rolled my eyes at that, of course Bats wouldn't come help. It's only the planet that he lives on, why should he get involved when it's possibly under attack? I thought.

"Typical." Hawkgirl said with a roll of her eyes.

"What about G.L.?" Flash asked.

"I couldn't reach him." J'onn replied. With a jolt, the jet started and we started making our way down to Earth. As we got closer to where the intruders landed, I started getting excited for the possible fight. I'm usually not one to get excited over a fight, but it had been awhile since I could really use my abilities. The most I had done since the last alien invasion had been stopping a couple petty bank robbers. They weren't much of a challenge. It was just a matter of freezing them to the ground or holding them in a ball of water until the police arrived. I grabbed my staff from my belt and looked out the window. We were preparing to land and I could see them marching down the street. They didn't look as alien as the last aliens we had dealt with, they just looked like giant robots, with silver faces, red bodies, blue gloves and they were each holding a metal pole. Judging by the look on their faces, they weren't here with gifts, and they certainly didn't want to play nice. We each flew out of the jet once it was parked and went to land in the street. "Stop!" J'onn said. The robots stopped their march and stared at us. "What do you want here?" he asked them.

"John Stewart, the Green Lantern." The robot in the front replied. Well at least they speak English. That helps a little bit.

"What for?" Flash asked them.

"That's not your concern." The head robot said.

"You made it our concern when you stepped foot on this planet." I told them. As usual, the bad guys ignored me, and Hawkgirl took a step up to them.

"Wanna bet?" She asked them, crouching down and holding her staff. Oh no. That's her usual 'I want to smash your head in with this mace' look. Usually when she looks like that, things don't end well. The robot swung his arm at her and she ducked. She went to go swing at him with her mace, but he grabbed both of her arms with one hand and threw her a good 50 feet over his head. Flash ran past me and jumped over cars and truck in order to go catch her before she hit the ground. I saw that he caught her and I looked back over to the robots. I glanced over at J'onn and saw that he was about attack, so I prepared myself. J'onn jumped in the air and I started freezing one of the robots. I had only gotten up to his waist when the robot used his staff to break the ice, and he came charging at me. I jumped up and landed on his shoulder, doing a flip, and turned around so that I could see him. He charged at me again and I made a patch of ice for him to run into. He started to slip on it, but he stopped himself before he could fall. I ran at him, but he stuck out his staff. Before I could do anything I felt electricity flow through me and I yelled. I was shocked back about twenty feet and landed on my back. I stood up with a groan and saw that the robot was coming back towards me. He elongated his staff and the end crackled with electricity. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that J'onn was in the same situation as I. I elongated my staff to its full length and got ready for the robot to get closer. He swung at me with his staff, but I ducked and rolled out of the way. I tried sending a ball of water towards him but he swiped at it with his staff and the water evaporated. With incredible speed, he lunged at me and shoved his staff right onto my chest. I flew backwards in the air, hit a building, and fell down to the ground. I picked my head up and saw that J'onn had been thrown through an entire wall and he had yet to reappear.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I thought. I saw Hawkgirl fly towards the three robots and hit one of them with her mace. The robot fell forward and skidded down the road, creating sparks. Hawkgirl flew to another robot and swung her mace at him, but he blocked it and electrocuted her back into a restaurant window and through a concrete wall. I started getting up just as Flash ran over to the robots, but before he could get in a hit, the robot stuck his staff out, and Flash ran right into it, flying up in the air and into a parked car. I got on my feet and ran over to him. He sat up and Hawkgirl walked over as well.

Groaning and holding his head, Flash asked, "Why do I feel like a hockey puck?" I stepped forward to help him up, and Hawkgirl flew up to go catch up with the robots.

"Too bad Bats didn't want to join the party." I said to Flash. He chuckled and stretched his arms over his head. "Do you want a ride over?" I asked him. He grinned and got all excited. Sometimes I forget that people think it's cool to surf around on a piece of ice. I've done it so many times it kind of lost its excitement. I made a big enough ice board and he hopped right on. I shook my head while smiling and got on behind him, and lifted us up off the ground and we followed in the direction Hawkgirl went. We finally caught up to them just in time to see Hawkgirl get annihilated by another electric staff. The robot was about to shock her again when we heard someone yell 'Back off". Flash and I both turned to see Superman fly down and spear the robot into a concrete wall. "It's about damn time." I said. I flew Flash and I to the ground and we started making our way over to the other two robots. Before we could get there, one robot fired a shot of lightning over to Superman, which shocked him but he didn't seem too affected by it. The robot shot another bolt, but he held it onto Superman for longer. The beam sent Superman back into the wall and he couldn't move. I ran over to Hawkgirl, who hadn't gotten up yet, and tried to get her out of harm's way. I looked over just in time to see Superman break the robots staff, and a small explosion created thick black smoke around us. I put Hawkgirl and I into a small bubble of water so we wouldn't breathe in the smoke. The smoke dissipated and I put the water back into my staff. Superman had grabbed the robot's staff and broke it over his knee. I grinned, without the staff these robots had zero chance against Superman. To prove my point, Superman picked the robot up over his head, and threw it at the robot he had previously defeated. Now there was only one left.

"Are you good?" I asked Hawkgirl. She sat up holding her arm.

"Yeah, I'm good." She said. Flash came back and ran over towards Superman.

"Thought you were busy with an earthquake?" he said.

"It was just a 4.0." Superman said. I rolled my eyes, only to Superman would an earthquake not be a problem. "You mind telling me what's going on here?" Hawkgirl and I walked over to him.

"I wish I…" but that was all Flash could get out before electricity surrounded all of us and we were all shocked. Crap, we forgot about the third one, I thought. We landed on the ground and I flipped myself over to see J'onn jump on top of the robot, smashing him down into the car, and the car caught on fire. J'onn turned to us, but the robot stood up with the car on his shoulders, ready to throw it. Flash zoomed over to move J'onn out of the way just as the robot threw the car. I put ice all around the car, but it still exploded. The force of the blast shattered my ice and threw me back onto the ground. I quickly picked myself back up and stood with the others, fire surrounding us. Sure, Batman is too busy for this. The robots pointed their staffs at us, and we all crouched down into a ready position, preparing for yet another fight. Right as the robots shot their electricity at us, and Superman shot his heat lasers, a giant green wall came between us and stopped the beams from hitting anyone. Finally, G.L. is here. We could definitely use his help, I thought.

"Stop!" Green Lantern yelled. He floated down onto the ground and made the wall disappear.

"Better late than never." Flash told him. Green Lantern surprised us all and walked away from us, and towards the robots. We all looked at each other with confused looks on our faces. I looked back, and Green Lantern was standing in front of the head robot.

"You are the Green Lantern known as John Stewart?" the robot asked.

"I am."

"Your ring." The robot held out his hand, and Lantern put his ring into it. Superman and Flash stepped forward.

"John?"

"What are you doing?"

John turned around and glared at us. "Stay out of this." Sure, don't tell us that before we get our butts kicked. Tell us now that we each have been thrown into buildings and cars, that's real helpful.

The two side robots put what appeared to be handcuffs on John's hands, while the head robot said that John would have to go with them. A golden beam surrounded the four of them, and they disappeared into the light. I raised an eyebrow. "Does anyone have any idea what just happened?" I asked them. I was met with perplexed looks and silence. "Right."

We all headed back to the jet, and flew back to the watchtower so we could try and track where John had gone. Once we landed the jet, we all walked back into the main control room. The silence was deafening, but we all didn't know what to say. We never expected John to just go with these robots, and we still had no clue what they wanted with him. J'onn walked over to the window that overlooked Earth. I assumed he was trying to send a message to John, or at least see where he was. After a couple of minutes, he turned back towards us. "I sense turmoil, a heavy heart."

"I could have told you that." Flash said. I looked at him and nudged him in the ribs.

"That isn't helping right now." I told him. He just sighed and went back to looking down at the floor.

"He's looking at stars." J'onn said, walking over to the hologram console in the middle of the room.

Superman walked over to him. "But which stars?" Superman flew over to the controls and started messing with them, trying to find the stars that J'onn was sensing. Seeing as I didn't know the difference between any stars, I tuned myself out. I wasn't going to be a big help in finding G.L. I took my staff off my belt and started twirling it around my fingers like a baton. I used the water inside to make sure that it never fell or became off balanced. I stood there twirling for a couple of minutes, thinking about what John had gotten himself into. Obviously those robots weren't too friendly, but G.L had willingly gone with them. It was all just too weird. I came out of my thoughts when Flash nudged my arm and told me we had found the planet Lantern was on.

We had all gone back to the jet, and a little while later we had arrived at the planet. I looked out the window and saw rock debris everywhere. The debris seemed to go on for miles. Not knowing much about space, I chalked the rocks up to meteors and quickly forgot about them. We started our descent into the atmosphere, when finally Hawkgirl spoke up. "Why would he give them his ring? It just doesn't make any sense." I hummed in agreement.

"John's a strange one. That's for sure." Superman said.

"I'm beginning to think all you humans are." Hawkgirl said.

I looked up at her. "Hey!" I said, slightly offended.

"Sorry." She said as she glanced back at me.

"It's alright," Superman said. "I take it as a compliment." Sure you would, you aren't even human. "Initiate landing procedure." Before we could get the wheels down, a beam hit the plane, knocking us around a little bit. Alarms started beeping and I saw three ships approach the front of our ship, and of course they were firing at us. I held onto the console in front of me so I wouldn't be thrown to the floor and I noticed that the ships had looped around so that they were behind us. Flash started tapping at his console.

"They're not responding to our signal." He said as he pressed more buttons.

"It's clear what they want. I say we give it to them." Hawkgirl said.

"We can't just start shooting at them!" I yelled back at her. "No offense, I don't want to start some galactic war with a planet we don't know anything about."

Superman grabbed Hawkgirl's arm. "Evie's right. We're not here to start a war." He let go of her arm, and walked to the back. "Flash and Evie, take the controls." He opened up the hatch and he, Hawkgirl, and J'onn flew out. I looked at Flash and we both ran up to the control seats. I frantically looked at all the glowing and flashing buttons, but I had absolutely no idea what to do. The most I could drive was a car, and I couldn't even drive stick shift. How the hell am I expected to fly a space jet? At least Flash knows what he's doing.

"'Flash, take the controls.' But does anyone ask if I know how?" He says as he's pressing buttons at supersonic speed. I looked over at him, my eyes wide.

"Wait, you don't even know how to fly this thing?!" I practically screamed at him. He didn't get a chance to reply as a rapid beeping noise was coming from the side of the ship. I looked out the window and saw what I assumed was a landing strip. I mean, it was long, so whether it was one or not, it was going to be a landing strip today. I felt the wheels of the plane come out, but I saw that we were going too fast. We would never make it. "Umm, Flash, you might want to hit the brakes now." I told him. He pulled up on the handles, and just as the front wheel went over the edge of the building, we miraculously stopped. I let out a breath I had been holding, and slumped back into my chair. "I vote we never do that again."

"Agreed." Flash said, slumping back into his own seat. We each took a few deep breaths and walked out the back of the jet. We needed to find the others quickly. After that bumpy ride, I wanted to get as far away from the jet as I could. "Well, they say any landing you walk away from is a…" but he never finished his thought, because as soon as we got to the top of the ramp, about twenty guards stood around us with their guns aiming straight at us.

"Well, I've seen better welcoming committees." I said. As soon as the words left my mouth the guards started shooting at us. I quickly put up a wall of water, and the beams only evaporated the water. As I was holding up the wall, I looked back and saw Flash trying to start the jet so we could get out of there. "Anytime now, please." I called back to him. I looked back and saw that Superman, Hawkgirl, and J'onn had come back. It's about time, I thought. They started getting rid of the guards one by one, and I put my wall of water down. Flash walked off the jet, just as Hawkgirl was.

"We had everything under control, honest!" He tried telling her. I snorted and patted his shoulder.

"Sure we did." I told him. I walked over to J'onn, who was from what I could tell, reading the mind of the one guard that was left conscious. J'onn's eyes stopped glowing and he let go of the guard, who fell down to the ground, unconscious.

"Green Lantern is close by. That way." He said as he turned to the massive building in the center of the city.

"Of course he would be in the enormous building right in the center of a city we don't know about. Why couldn't he be in a small coffee shop, waiting and ready to go?" I muttered. Superman chuckled and walked past me. Well, we might as well start walking. I looked around at the different buildings that surrounded us. I'm not going to lie, the architecture here was amazing. I guess I hadn't gotten used to the whole 'outer space has other people here too' idea. It just amazed me that societies like these can resemble societies found on Earth. I was pulled out of my thoughts when we stopped walking. We had already made it to the main building. Superman flew up to the window first, and the rest of us followed. I hovered on my board as Superman melted the glass with his heat vision, and then we flew in. We landed and I looked around. We were in the middle of a room, which was more like a dome. Rows of benches were above us and hundreds of different species of aliens sat in them. In the center of the room suspended in the air was what appeared to be a TV, and three different faces were on the monitor. The faces looked abstract, like they came out of some futuristic Picasso painting. Green Lantern and another alien were hovering in front of the screen on floating platforms.

There were gasps and murmurs as people looked at us, and I heard someone yell 'Order'. "What is this, some kind of trial?" Flash asked.

"Apparently." Superman said. I bit my lip. If this was a trial, then that means a crime happened. And judging by the handcuffs that Green Lantern was still in, I figured it was safe to assume that these aliens thought that Green Lantern had committed said crime. My question was, what exactly was he being accused of?

Another voice yelled, "Remove the intruders, immediately!" Some creatures ran at us, they had long reptilian tales, and a horn coming out of their head. I didn't know what species they were, but I decided to call them dinosaur unicorns. I smirked as they ran towards us but Superman picked them up and threw them back. My smirk disappeared when I saw that more robots like the ones we fought earlier were on the other side of the room. Oh great, these guys again. They held out their staffs, but Superman put his arm up.

"Wait!" he said. "We apologize for disrupting these proceedings, but John Stewart is our friend."

A female voice said "This is a public trial." It finally occurred to me that the voices were coming from the weird silver heads that were on the monitor. They must be the judges. The face on the left moved his eyes over to look at the other two faces.

"Very well. You may take seats in the gallery." The face in the middle looked very stern, and I'm assuming he was the stricter one of the three.

"But this tribunal will not tolerate any further outbursts." He said. I kept looking at Green Lantern during this whole discussion and saw that he was looking at us, almost as if he was mad that we had come here. I thought that he would be grateful that we would try and help him, but something in my gut told me that he really didn't want our help. That meant he either thought he wasn't going to get in trouble, or he was in trouble and wasn't going to fight back. Both possibilities worried me, but instead of saying anything, I followed behind everyone else and took seats in the gallery.

"Are you ready to call your first witness?" one of the male voices asked the other alien on the hoverboard. I assumed he was the prosecutor.

"I am, My Lord." He said. "I call Kanjar-Ro." We saw a man walk out of a tunnel underneath the gallery and walk to the middle of the room. Even from here, I didn't like him. He was hunched over, and looked like an untrustworthy person. As he walked, he seemed too confident for being a witness in a crime. I narrowed my eyes at him as he walked over to the dinosaur unicorn guard.

"Kanjar-Ro, do you agree to let us probe and display any and all memories you have?" the guard asked him.

"I got nothing to hide." He said walking onto the platform. Yeah, sure you don't. Kanjar-Ro flew up in front of the monitor and in front of the lawyer.

"State your name and profession."

"Kanjar-Ro. I'm…a pirate." He said. I turned to Hawkgirl.

"Oh, great, so they take testimony from a criminal? That doesn't sound like a strong system if you me." She shook her head and looked back to the trial.

"A criminal?" the lawyer asks. "Yet you come here to bear witness to another crime. Why?"

"I may steal things, but it's nothing compared to what he did." Kanjar said pointing to Green Lantern. Everyone in the courtroom started murmuring in agreement and the five of us looked at each other in confusion. From the top of the dome, a white light shined down onto Kanjar, and surrounded him.

"Tell us about your encounter with John Stewart." The prosecutor said.

"It all started with these blasters I…found. I was on my way to sell them to some rebels on Adjouris 4. That's when he showed up. I figured he was gonna try to stop me so I shot first. His ring tore out my engine. Huh! But he still wasn't done with me. He wanted to know if I was working with anyone. I told him to turn around, see for himself. He tried to shoot my friends but his beam shot off their deflector shield and shot toward Adjouris 4. There, it hit a volcanic fault line starting a devastating chain reaction." He paused. "Three billion…that's how many were on that planet." Everyone around the room had started whispering again and I just crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't believe it. It sounded too convenient that a beam from his ring would travel all the way down to the planet, and just happen to hit a fault line that would destroy the planet and everyone on it. I mean, of all the chances of that happening, it just didn't seem possible. I glanced over at Hawkgirl and saw that she wore an unimpressed look on her face as well.

The beam of light that was surrounding Kanjar-Ro disappeared and the lawyer said he had no more questions. One of the male faces spoke up. "This account is most disturbing. We will recess…20 petacycles." I didn't know what a petacycle was, but I hoped that it would be long enough for us to find a way to get John out of this. Even if the story was true, the whole event was an accident and nobody was really to blame. He shouldn't be punished for something that could have happened to anyone. Everyone stood up, and we walked to John. Flash got there first.

"Now I get it. You wanted to clear your name. That's why you didn't put up a fight back on Earth." Flash told him.

"I told you to stay out of this." G.L said.

Hawkgirl turned to the direction of Kanjar-Ro. "That scum's an obvious liar. Give me five minutes alone with him. I'll get the truth." She said waving her mace around like she just couldn't wait to hit him with it.

"Hawkgirl, Flash, all of you…listen to me. Nobody's lying. Do you see that?" He asked us, looking at the top of the dome at the rocks floating outside, the same rocks I had noticed earlier on our way here. "I did it. I'm guilty." He said looking down. I looked at him, and saw that he truly believed that it was his fault. If anything, seeing that look on his face made me want to help him even more. The guards came and took Green Lantern away and we were left standing there.

"Three billion gone. I can't believe it." Flash said.

"Neither can I." Superman said. Well at least I'm not the only one who has doubts here. "I want to take a closer look at what happened." Superman said.

"Why? John admits he's guilty." Hawkgirl said.

"I don't believe a word of it. It just seems too convenient that his beam just happened to hit the fault line that would destroy the entire planet." I said putting my hands on my hips.

"Well, no one is disputing the facts." Hawkgirl said.

Superman turned around. "Well maybe Evie and I are. J'onn, I need you to come with me. Evie, you too. Flash, Hawkgirl, can you buy us some time in court?"

"You're asking the world's fastest man to slow things down?" Flash asked. "Won't be easy."

I grinned. "Oh come on Flash, we all know you talk too much anyway. You just need to talk to these people for as long as possible."

Flash looked over at me. "Yeah you're right…hey! I don't talk that much, do I?"

I started laughing. "Don't worry Flash, I'm just teasing." I walked past him and we all went our separate ways. I followed Superman and J'onn back to where the jet was parked. We opened the hatch and walked aboard.

"So, what do you expect to find on this moon?" J'onn asked Superman.

"I don't know. There's something bothering me." He said. "Just call it a…"

"Intuition?"

"Gut feeling?" J'onn and I said at the same time.

"Exactly." Superman said.

We got the jet started and went on our way. In the jet we suited up into our space suits and left the jet and landed on the moon directly below the debris. We all walked out and superman asked, "See anything wrong with this picture?"

"Where do I start?" J'onn said. I thought he would have an actual answer, but instead he sounded like a moody Goth teenager. "The loss of life, the echoes of our own pasts." I rolled my eyes.

"No, not up there. Down here." Superman said. I looked down at the moon, and then it hit me.

J'onn's eyes widened. "It can't be." He said.

"We're standing on a moon." I said. "I may not have gone to college, but I know enough about space to know that planets and moons have their own gravitational pulls."

Superman looked at me. "Exactly, this moon is still orbiting a planet which does not exist." He said.

"It should have flown off into space the moment the planet was destroyed." J'onn said.

"But it didn't, did it?"

"Well than…if the moon is here, then where is the planet?" I asked them. They both looked at me. "A planet is pretty big, you can't just tuck it somewhere where people won't see it." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"I suggest we go take a look around." J'onn said. We each flew into different directions searching for any piece of evidence that could tell us exactly what happened to the planet.

"J'onn, Evie, I hope you're doing better than I am." Superman said over our com system. "All I see are craters."

I was hovering above a particularly deep crater, trying to decide on whether or not I should go down and explore it. "I haven't seen anything yet." I told him.

"Well, I have found something, but I'm not sure what." J'onn said. I decided my crater wasn't too important and flew out to try and find J'onn. I finally saw Superman fly down into a valley made of one deep crater and I went to follow him. Now, I'm not too familiar with space, but I'm pretty sure moons aren't supposed to have really big machines on them. I landed next to J'onn and Superman.

"What the heck is that thing?" I asked them.

"I have no idea. Any idea what this thing does?" He said turning to J'onn.

"When I was a child on Mars we had small toys called illusitrons. They could project crude images over objects, and even empty space." He said. Cool, I want one!

"You think this could be a larger version?" Superman asked.

"The engineering principles appear to be the same." J'onn said.

"Great, did your toy version have an off switch? That would make this a lot easier." I said looking at the machine. I turned my head when I felt both sets of eyes on me. Both men were looking at me, J'onn with hardly any emotion on his face and Superman with a hint of amusement in his eyes. "Right, sorry." I said.

Superman turned back to J'onn. "So this is an illusion." He said.

"It would explain why this moon's orbit has remained intact." J'onn said.

"But who would want to…" I started saying, but I was cut off when J'onn was thrown forward after a blast hit him. Another blast shot at both Superman and I and we were both thrown against the base of the cliff. I looked up and saw a jet fly straight at us. At the last second, it shot at the top of the cliff sending rocks down towards us. We each ran and dodged the rocks, but soon there were too many. I quickly grabbed my staff and put a thick shield of ice around the three of us and waited for the rocks to stop falling. They finally stopped and I turned towards Superman. "Do you think you can get us out of here?" I asked him. He smiled at me and flew up and started lifting up the rocks and moving them out of our way. Finally we got out of the hole and looked up to see that two jets were shooting at each other. One jet was hit and was crash landing. Superman flew up and got the driver out, letting the ship explode. He brought the driver down to the rest of us. Imagine my surprise when I saw that is was that sketchy pirate who had testified against G.L. The other jet landed next to us and Hawkgirl stepped out of it.

"I followed him here from Adjouris 5." She said, gesturing to Kanjar. "I had to, uh, borrow one of the defense forces' fighters." She said looking nervous. I smiled knowing that she totally stole it.

"So he's behind all this?" Superman asked.

"Please," I said, "He isn't smart enough to escape from a paper bag, let alone framing a Green Lantern for mass murder and making a whole planet disappear." I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Kanjar.

Hawkgirl stepped forward. "Evie is right, he isn't behind this." She told us everything she knew and we all looked at each other. "Evie and I will stay here, you guys go back to the courtroom and get John and Flash out of there!" She said.

J'onn and Superman both flew to the planet. "Okay. When I give you the signal, you need to cut the power to the machine." Superman said through his earpiece.

"You've got it." I said. I pulled out my staff and leaned against the wall of the cliff. "Man, I didn't like those robots in the first place."

"Yeah," Hawkgirl said, "I didn't trust them either." Superman must have been booking it, because minutes later we heard him enter the court room and stop the proceedings.

"John's innocent!" he yelled. I assumed he was talking to the grumpy faced judge. "That's your cue, Hawkgirl and Evie. Hope you can hear me."

"Loud and clear." Hawkgirl said. We both floated up to the machine and while she hit it with her mace, I made a giant ice block and threw it at the bottom of the machine. We watched as the chain reactions of explosions worked its way up to the top of the machine, and the illusion of the rocks floating in space disappeared and Adjouris 4 took its place. I listened as Superman explained that the planet was there and it had all been an illusion.

"A frame up, as they say on my planet." Superman said as he finished. I rolled my eyes. Nobody says that, unless they're stuck in 1935, I thought. I heard a muffling in the ear com and Green Lantern yelling at someone, who I assumed to be the sketchy alien that had testified earlier.

"I hope he kicks Kanjar's ass." I said. Hawkgirl laughed in agreement.

"Evie, Hawkgirl, get back to the jet immediately" Superman urgently told us. I looked at Hawkgirl.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I'll explain it to you on the way." He said. I jumped on an ice board and Hawkgirl and I raced back to the jet. When we got there everyone else was on board.

"What's happening?" I asked them.

"We have to go back to Oa." Green Lantern said. I recognized the name from the few times that G.L had explained how his ring works and what exactly the Corps was; it was the home planet for the Lanterns.

"What's happening on Oa?" Hawkgirl asked. She walked up front and took her seat next to Superman so they could get the jet ready for takeoff.  
"Apparently the Manhunters were the original Green Lanterns." Flash explained. "When the Green Lantern Council didn't think they could do their jobs properly, they programmed them to do lesser jobs such as hunting and guarding. Turns out, the Manhunters weren't so happy about that after all."

"So why would they go back to Oa? If they wanted revenge that badly, why wouldn't they hunt all the Green Lanterns down?" I asked.

"On Oa is the main Lantern. That is what gives powers to the rings." Green Lantern explained.

"I thought you had your own portable charger?" Flash asked him.

"I do, but the main Lantern charges that as well."

"So basically, no big Lantern, no more Green Lantern Corps." I said. G.L nodded. "Well then, let's go save Oa." We flew the Jet to Oa as fast as it could go and we parked it just outside of the main Lantern building. G.L flew us all to where the Manhunters were attacking the central building. He let us all go, and we each separated and started fighting the robots. I kept my staff on my belt, but I took some water out of it and created ice daggers that I could throw. I threw a handful of them and they each landed in the head of a robot, shutting it down. I sensed someone behind me, so I turned but I was too slow. One of the robots landed a punch right to my face, and I staggered away. I shook my head and looked up to see him walking towards me. I made a sword out of ice and slashed at his chest, breaking the metal plating and slicing the wires inside. The robot powered off and fell to the ground. I jumped on a board and flew over to try and help J'onn fight off a few robots that were overpowering him. As soon as I landed, I heard a loud buzz and I looked over my shoulder. The robots were using a giant gun, and it was aiming right for us. Thankfully Green Lantern noticed it too, and he was able to put a shield up before the gun could do any damage. I looked around and saw that the gun had completely decimated everything in a perfect circle around us. Well at least that got rid of the other Manhunters around here.

"We need to get to higher ground!" Superman shouted at us. J'onn flew up the side of the building and phased through the wall. I was busy keeping robots off my back, and I was taking them out one by one with my ice knives. Once I had gotten rid of the robots around me, I saw Flash run up the side of the building, but a piece of metal hit him in the face and he was knocked down. Green Lantern stood in front of him and put up a barrier between him and the guns, but the guns were slowly eating a way through his shield. Before the shield could break, five beams of green shot at the robots and destroyed them. I looked up and saw that Hawkgirl was leading the other Green Lanterns around to take out the big guns. I formed a shield of ice in front of me to block the robot's guns and flew up to the top of the building.

I stopped next to Green Lantern and waited for the next round of Manhunters to come and surround us. Just as they were running towards us, I saw Green Lantern look over his shoulder and fly up to the taller building. "Gee, thanks." I muttered, pulling out my staff. I shot water at the first few robots, and short circuited their systems. Then with the rest, I used some more ice to rip out their wiring. I pulled my staff out and used it to volt myself up over a group, and when I was directly above them, I slashed them all right down the middle.

I landed on the ground and flew up to where everyone else was hovering. I looked up just as an explosion happened in the column that held the Lantern power source. Then, green lightning crackled across the sky and a giant green Manhunter broke through the roof. "Okay…don't think that was supposed to happen." I said. "Should we go do something?"

"I don't think there is a need to." Superman said. As fast as he appeared, the glowing robot was sucked back down into the column, moaning and growling the whole way down. He disappeared for a second, and then an enormous green light shot from the ceiling and fireworks went off. Then, there was absolute silence.

"So…did we win?" Flash asked.

I looked around at all the broken robots lying on the ground and then back to the fireworks. "Yeah, I think we did." We all stood in a group and waited for Green Lantern to come out of the building. He flew down and spoke to the other Green Lanterns for a minute, then he walked over to us.

"Are you alright, John?" J'onn asked him.

"You believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself."

Flash walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, what are friends for?" and gave him the biggest grin he could offer. G.L held up his ring and put us all in a green bubble.

"Let's go home." He said. He flew us over to the jet and we got in and flew back to the Watchtower.

"Hey guys, could you drop me off in Gotham? I haven't been home in a couple days, and I should probably do a patrol tonight."

"Sure, no problem." Superman said. Sooner than I expected, we arrived in Gotham. "Where do you want to be dropped off at?" he asked. He didn't know where I lived since we all decided that we wouldn't know where we each lived, except for the case of emergencies. We were with each other often enough, we each wanted to keep a little bit of privacy.

"Anywhere is good, as long as it's in Gotham." I told him. He set the jet down on top of an abandoned factory building. "Thanks guys." I said. I pressed the button to release the hatch and then started walking down the ramp when J'onn stopped me.

"Evie, don't forget I need your papers so I can put them in the League's database." I thought back to the blank that I had left in my final paper, my superhero name.

I gave him a small smile. "Sure thing J'onn, I'll give it to you tomorrow." He gave me a nod and I walked off the jet. I hopped on my ice board, and flew back to the roof of my apartment building. I made sure no one was watching me, and I climbed down my fire escape and into my bedroom window. I changed, took a shower, and decided to get a few hours of sleep before I went on patrol at 10.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I stood on an apartment building roof looking out at the streets below. There wasn't much crime going on tonight and all in all it was pretty quiet. I was thinking about what my hero name could be. I didn't want anything too cheesy, but I wanted it to be simple and nothing too complicated.

"Long day?" I heard a voice behind me say. I whipped around with my staff in hand, only to see Batman on the other side of the roof. I put a hand over my thudding heart.

"Geez, don't sneak up on me like that. You're lucky I didn't jump and fall off this building." I told him.

"I probably would have had time to catch you." He said. "You never answered my question."

I rolled my eyes and turned back so I was facing the edge of the building. I felt him walk up and stand next to me. "It was fine. Just a lot of traveling."

"I heard there were some robots downtown. Care to explain?"

I looked over at him. "Well, three giant robots came and kind of kicked our butts because they were looking for John because they wanted to arrest him since some legal system on a planet thought that John had killed three billion people. We followed John and the robots to try and clear his name even though he thought that he had actually killed all of those people and we discovered that it was all a hoax to draw the Green Lantern Corps out because the robots didn't like them at all. Then we saved the Green Lantern headquarter planet and then we flew back here." I took in a deep breath since I had said that all in one. I looked over at Batman and he had fully turned towards me and had raised an eyebrow. "You had to be there." I said.

"Sounds like you guys managed without me." He said, turning back to the city.

"We could have used you. I'm sure you know more about laws and legal terms than Flash did." I told him.

"Why did Flash need to know legal terms?"

"Because our dear old Flash was acting as a lawyer for our very own John Stewart."

Batman let out a small snort. "Flash was a lawyer?"

"Yep. And he was so bad they almost killed him and Lantern for it." I chuckled. Batman nodded his head and was quiet for a minute.

"What were you thinking about before?" He asked me.

I glanced over to him wondering why he was being so talkative tonight. Usually he doesn't say anything to me when we see each other on patrol. "I need a superhero name for the League, but I don't know what to pick. Usually everyone just calls me Evie. I've never had to go by anything else."

"Do you have any ideas?" he asked me.

I thought for a second. "The name Aquatica keeps popping up in my head. Almost like I've heard or seen it from somewhere before, but I can't place it."

"Aquatica." Batman said. "It suits you." He said. Before I could say anything he took a step forward towards the edge of the building and looked back at me. "Go get some rest, it's pretty quiet. I should be able to handle anything tonight." I was about to protest but he must have sensed it. "I'm serious Evie. Go." And with that, he shot a grapple at the building next door and swung off into the darkness. I watched where he had disappeared form for a couple minutes, then I decided to head home. When the Bat tells you to do something, you really don't argue with him. I got home, changed into sweatpants and a tanktop, crawled into bed and was asleep in seconds.


	4. The Enemy Below

Hello everyone! I am so sorry that this chapter came out really late. I had just gotten back from vacation and for some reason I thought I finished this chapter but I didn't? Anyway, no excuses but here it is. As usual please leave a review, they seriously give me life and I love to hear what you guys have to say about everything. I'll try and get the next chapter up soon. Enjoy!

~S

I do not own D.C Comics, and I only own my o.c and my versions of the plots.

BEEP BEEP BEEP I rolled over and slapped my hand on my alarm clock. I opened my eyes and looked at the numbers flashing on the screen, 9:15 pm. While most people are going to bed at this time, I was getting up to run around the rooftops of Gotham.

Doing my nightly patrols was actually pretty fun. It gave me a chance to exercise and use my powers in a less stressful situation than I would while with the Justice League. Usually when I work with the League, it's always an Earth-ending-life-and-death situation. That's not always the best time to test new stuff out with my powers. While patrolling Gotham, there wasn't a real sense of urgency. Most of the crimes that I stopped at night was robberies and small acts of vandalism by rowdy teens, no big deal.

I groaned and rolled out of bed. Usually I fall asleep in the early afternoon, but due to a flood in India that I had to help Superman with, I had only gotten about three hours of sleep. I went and turned on my coffee machine and headed to the bathroom to go take a shower and get changed into my leggings, leotard and jacket. I dried my hair and pulled it up into a half ponytail. I walked into the kitchen, poured myself some coffee and grabbed some leftover food from my fridge. I wolfed it all down, tied up my black combat boots, and climbed out of my fire escape onto my building's rooftop.

Since my building was in the middle of Gotham, I could see practically everything that went on. Usually I looked for the flashing lights of police cars in order to find a crime that I could help with. So far they have seemed grateful for my help, and nobody has had any problems with me helping them catch their criminals.

Tonight I didn't see any police lights, so I decided to go along the rooftops and find the criminals myself. Most of the time while jumping or flying from building to building I would catch a robbery happening in an alley. It was pretty easy from there to freeze the robber to the ground until the police got there. I could usually catch about twenty robbers a night, and a dozen more than that on the weekends. Yeah, that's how bad the crime in Gotham was. You would think people would learn not to do such stupid things, especially when Batman and I were out. Then again if these guys were smart they wouldn't be robbers.

I patrolled for a couple of hours catching about fifteen robbers, when a jet hovered above the building I was next to. I recognized it as the League's jet and I flew up to meet it. Inside was John, Diana, and Superman, and from the looks on their faces, I knew something was wrong. "What's up guys?" I asked.

"Evie, we need your help." Superman urgently said. "We have a sunken military submarine with officers trapped on it and we need to get them out." My eyes widened and I wasted no time hopping in the jet and strapping myself in.

"Do we have any idea what caused the sub to sink?" I asked.

"No, not yet." Diana said. I have only seen her a couple times since she joined the League, and I still wasn't a fan of hers. She had never been mean to me at all, so I really didn't have any reason to dislike her. As childish as it sounds, I just wasn't a fan of her personality. She thought men were beneath her, at least from the way I had heard her talk about the beliefs of Themyscara, the land she was from. Apparently the Amazon warriors thought men were not to be trusted and they were weak. Considering how Diana had never met a man up until about a month ago, I didn't think it was right for her to be so judgmental about them. But either way, I decided to act professional around her and be nice. Well as nice as I can be.

We had already left the city and were heading to the location where the sub was when Superman turned towards me and handed me something. "Here, I haven't given you a com link yet. This is one you can keep with you at all times, that way if you need something you won't have to find your own way up to the Watch Tower." I took the earpiece and stuck it in my ear. It was small and discreet so I could get away with wearing it all the time.

"Thanks." I said to him. He turned back around and started pressing more buttons on the jet. I felt the nose of the jet pitch forward and I assumed we were going to land. I wasn't expecting the whole jet to go underwater. I jumped in my seat as the jet crashed into the water and started diving down.

Superman must have sensed my uneasiness because he turned back around and looked at me. "You didn't know this thing could go underwater?"

I looked out the window at the dark water and looked back at him. "No, no clue." I weakly said. Superman just chuckled, but he grew serious when a beeping started going off on the monitor up front.

"I've locked on to their distress beacon. We're getting close." Diana said.

Superman had gotten up and looked out the front window. "We're not the only ones." He said pointing out a ship that was facing us underwater. It appeared to be a submarine, but it was sleeker and didn't look like anything our military used. We flew under it and we saw that their submarine dwarfed our ship. "We've got company." Superman said sitting back down and getting buckled back into his seat. We came back up over their ship, and they shot two missiles at us.

"Not for long." Green Lantern said, steering us out of the way of the two missiles. We rocked to the side as we dodged the missiles, and when we righted ourselves we flew past the submarine and over a rock structure that had different canyons carved through it. If we weren't being shot at I would have loved to stay and look at the view.

The sub followed us and kept shooting missiles at us, which we continued to dodge and block. Up ahead of us were two arches made of rock.

"G.L go through there! They won't be able to fit through." I told him. Their sub was way too big to get through both arches. G.L went through both arches and I turned around to see if the other sub did too. They hit the first arch and got stuck.

"Lost 'em." Green Lantern smugly said, before two more subs came up from the bottom of the sea floor and stopped in front of us. I just rolled my eyes. You never say stuff like that, it's only an invitation for more crap to come our way.

"You were saying?" Superman asked sarcastically. Green Lantern continued to dodge the missile attacks, but Superman had had enough. He stood up and opened a compartment on the ceiling of the jet. He took out a mask to wear underwater and handed me one. "Those sailors won't have a prayer if we keep playing cat and mouse, come on." I took my staff off my belt and put it on my seat so I didn't lose while fighting and it sunk so I couldn't find it ever again. Besides, I would have all the water I would need out there.

We left the jet just before a missile hit it. Lantern put a bubble over us and we went over to the subs to find a way to take them out. Now instead of missiles being shot, they were now individual beams. I was going through the water faster than I had ever gone before. I quickly zipped over to a sub and completely froze their guns, leaving them defenseless. I looked over and watched Superman punch the other subs guns so hard that the metal completely crumpled. Green Lantern went underneath and tore a hole straight through with his ring.

Superman and Wonder Woman each took a sub and pushed them together making the windows to the subs explode, while Lantern tore off the nose of one of them. I floated back through the water to make sure that no other guns were intact. The two subs were completely dysfunctional and they both sunk to the bottom. Once they hit each other the force created an explosion.

I looked back at the sub and failed to notice that a small army had come together in front of us until someone told us to halt. I looked over and saw two more submarines, two men on what looked like underwater jet skis, and another man who held a trident and wore gold plated armor with dark green pants and accents on it. One look at them and I knew who they were.

"Those are Atlantians…" I whispered to myself. The man in the gold must be Aquaman, king of Atlantis. He may not be on dry land all the time but I definitely knew who he was. Seeing as I'm a girl who can control water, it was absolutely awing to meet the man who can practically control the seven seas, and talk to sea creatures. Talk about meeting a role model. I wanted to swim right up to him and ask a million different questions about different ways I could use my powers, but judging by the glare he was giving us he wasn't too happy to see us.

"Man, that glare can compete with Bats' glare." I said.

"You've violated the sovereign borders of Atlantis. Leave at once or you will be destroyed." Aquaman said pointing his trident at us. Oookay, guess I'm not getting those questions answered.

Superman was in the front of the group so he spoke for us. "We apologize for the intrusion." He said, putting his hands up in surrender. "We were responding to a call for help."

Aquaman looked over to the sub, which was now sitting on a bunch of rocks. "They should've stayed on the surface where they belong."

"Please. The men on board, they'll drown." Diana pleaded with him. Aquaman raised an eyebrow, and thought for a second.

"Take the crew. But the vessel stays." He commanded.

"No way. That's a nuclear sub." Green Lantern said. I looked back at him like he was crazy, which I'm pretty sure he is. He pushed past Superman and made his way closer to Aquaman. I noticed that all of the guards had now tensed up and had a hand on their weapons.

"G.L, not now." I quietly said to him, but he brushed me off.

"If you think we're just going to walk away and leave it…"

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Aquaman interrupted. He did have a point, we were at an unfair advantage, seeing as the Atlantians were in a completely natural environment down here, and the only one of us who was feeling mostly comfortable underwater this deep was me. And I know that I probably wouldn't be able to stand up to a whole Atlantian army.

G.L's eyes glowed bright green and he went to go swim forward even more, but thankfully Superman stopped him. "He's right. Time's running out." He looked over at me. "Aquatica, do you think you can make an air bubble to get the crew out of the sub?" At first I forgot that he was talking to me since he used my hero name, but I guess since we were in front of people we didn't know he just wanted to be safe.

I remembered the question and I didn't even have to think about whether I could do it. "Sure, no problem." I shrugged. I swam over to the sub and separated the oxygen molecules from the hydrogen ones in order to form a huge bubble where the outside was made of water, but inside was made of air. I looked over at Aquaman and I was happy to see he looked impressed. I didn't get to think about it too long because soon enough the crew was put in my bubble and we were getting ready to leave.

"That's the last one." Superman called up to me. I closed off the small tunnel I made from the hole in the sub to the main part of my bubble, and started moving it up to the surface slowly. I couldn't go too fast for risk that I, or anyone else inside the bubble, would get the bends. That wouldn't be fun to deal with.

I broke the surface and saw that we were in the middle of a bad storm. Thunder and lightning were everywhere, the waves were choppy, and it was pouring down rain. The rain didn't bother me, in fact it made me stronger. The part that worried me was the thunder and lightning. The last thing I needed was to risk these people getting electrocuted. "Hey G.L, think you can take over here?" I asked him. I explained what I was worried about and he agreed with me. He put everyone in a giant green bubble and I went over and hopped in the jet.

Superman decided to stay outside and speak with Aquaman so it was just Diana and I in the jet. We sat in comfortable silence and I drew some pictures on the condensation that had formed on the windows. Childish, I know but hey, I didn't have anything else to do.

Green Lantern took the crew of the sub to the hospital in Metropolis while Superman, Diana, and I went back to the watchtower. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee. Since I didn't have much sleep last night I needed some help staying awake now. I walked back to the main floor with my mug in my hands. J'onn, Diana, and Flash were standing in a huddle talking, while Superman was on the phone. Judging by the way he was standing and the tone of his voice I assumed it was someone important on the other line, and that someone wasn't happy.

I walked over to the group just as Diana said "Aquaman's no madman. He's a king. He only wants to preserve and protect his own kind."

"So, who's gonna protect us from him?" G.L asked.

"I don't know, I kinda like the guy." I said.

"How can you say that?" G.L turned to me and asked. "He has one of our nuclear submarines!"

I fully turned towards Lantern. "He just wants to protect himself and his people. I can totally understand what he is thinking. Everybody up here on land doesn't think twice about polluting the water and going wherever they want, not caring about whose area they are invading. As someone who deals with water quite often, I can completely understand why Aquaman doesn't like us. It infuriates me every time I see garbage floating in the ocean, or dead sea animals killed because of plastic and toxins. That is his home, imagine how he feels." I said. "Do I agree with him keeping nuclear subs? No. But I can understand where he's coming from." I said taking a sip of my coffee. Apparently he didn't like my answer very much, and G.L stormed off, fuming.

I watched his retreating form and shook my head. "That guy needs to loosen up a bit." I said. I downed the last of my coffee and went back to the kitchen to clean my mug. I didn't have anything else planned for the day, so I figured I would go downstairs to my pool.

Did I not mention that the Watchtower has a pool? Cause it does! It's more of a giant diving well, you know, one of the really deep ones. It's awesome because I can sit in it and recharge my powers, or I can work on new things with my powers. It's also my hiding place. I can make an air bubble and hide down there for hours without anyone finding me. It's worked so far, so hopefully nobody will catch on to what I'm doing.

I went down to the pool and just floated on my back, listening to the water lap against the edges. I could feel the water repowering me and it woke me up a little more than the coffee did. J'onn said he thinks he understands why being in water helps me rejuvenate so much. Apparently there is more water in my system than that of a normal humans. Normal people are made of about 60 percent of water. I'm made up of 80 percent. It's not a problem, in fact it actually helps me when I'm sick or hurt. Instead of using medicine for minor stuff like scrapes or colds I can just sit in water for an hour and the symptoms are gone. The only downfall of being made up of this much water is I am more sensitive to the heat. Being outside on a hot summer day isn't life threating, but being in extreme heat for a long period of time can deplete my powers completely, or worse, kill me.

I was laying in the pool when I got called up through my earpiece. "Evie, you may want to come up here." J'onn said.

I sighed, hoping I was going to get a little more peace and quiet. "Sure thing J'onn, be right up." I pulled myself out of the pool, evaporated all the water off of me and headed upstairs. Not surprisingly, Green Lantern was ranting about something again.

"I knew we couldn't trust that fish man. The sub's been stripped and the plutonium is gone."

"And you think Aquaman's responsible?" Diana asked him.

"Who else princess?" G.L asked her sarcastically. "We've got to go back to Atlantis and get some straight answers."

I looked over to Superman. "If it's Aquaman you want, he's not in Atlantis." He said. I saw the news was on and the usual anchorman was reporting from what looked like the World Assembly building.

"According to eyewitness accounts Aquaman then forced his way past the guards and into a closed session of the World Assembly." The reporter said. "But as to why he's here or what he wants, we'll have to wait for further developments."

"Well that's one way to make yourself heard." I said, crossing my arms. "Maybe this is a good thing, it sounds like he wants to talk things over."

"Or he wants to kill us all." Green Lantern mumbled. Diana looked like she was about to retort and I rolled my eyes and walked over to look down at Earth. I didn't need to hear any more arguing from those two. The Earth looked so peaceful from up here, I wish we could get some of that peace here. I continued to stare at it and J'onn walked over to me, apparently now wanting to hear the arguments as well.

"How are you doing, Evie?" He asked me.

"I'm fine J'onn, how are you? Are you getting used to Earth's habits yet?"

"Some customs are strange, as is everything else. It is a lot to get used to." He said.

I chuckled, "I'm sure you'll be fine J'onn. If you have any questions or you just want to talk, you can just ask. I'd be happy to help."

"That is very kind of you Evie, thank you." He turned away from me and spoke to the rest of the group. "I believe we should go down and try to talk to Aquaman. Make sure he does not get into any trouble."

"You're right. Who knows what could happen." Superman said. Diana went to go get the jet ready to go while J'onn made sure everything in the Tower was secure. We were at the World Assembly building within minutes, and there was a horde of reporters outside.

"You guys go in and talk some sense into Aquaman, I'll stay out here and cover crowd control." I told them. They nodded and flew inside. I stayed outside and looked at all the people waiting to hear news from inside the meeting. A few minutes later the reporters swarmed the door just as Aquaman walked out. I made my way over to him to make sure none of the reporters got too close. In his bad mood, I'm sure Aquaman didn't need any cameras in his face.

The reporters had surrounded him and were asking him dozens of questions. He just glared at them and pushed past them. I was about five feet away from him when I called out to him. "Aquaman, wait!" I said. He ignored me and kept walking towards the street. I followed him and was quickly gaining ground when I heard a high pitched noise. I had just enough time to see something heading straight at us before it exploded. I was thrown back a couple feet and hit the concrete wall lining the sidewalk. I couldn't hear anything except a high pitched ringing in my ears and I saw double vision. I tried sitting up but I had the wind knocked out of me from the impact of the blast.

I looked up to see what the damage was, when I saw Aquaman laying on the ground struggling to get up. I sat up straight and a sharp pain shot through my ribs. Great, they're probably cracked or broken. I groaned and was able to stand on my feet, albeit I was a little wobbly. J'onn rushed over to me. "Evie, are you hurt?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

I took a deep breath. "I'm fine, just a little banged up." I saw Superman pick up Aquaman, with Diana's help, and flew away. "How is he?" I asked.

J'onn looked grim. "It is hard to say, he was closer to the blast than you were. His injuries will be much more serious." I took a step and the pain in my ribs flared up again. Sensing this, J'onn said "Perhaps you should go to the hospital as well."

I kept walking. "I'm fine, honestly." From the look he was giving me I knew J'onn didn't believe a word I was saying. I sighed, "Fine, have it your way." I said. J'onn walked over, picked me up and flew me to the hospital they others had taken Aquaman to.

Soon enough I had a nurse checking my vitals and bandaging my ribs up. "These are just bruised sweetie, but make sure you don't overwork yourself for a couple days." She said to me. She was a cute old thing, old enough to be a grandmother but not so old that she you had to worry about her not properly doing her job.

"I'll do my best, but unless the criminals stop working for a few days, it'll be pretty unlikely." I said. She had just finished with the bandages when she lifted my shirt back down and patted my knee in a grandmotherly fashion.

"Well then, those bad guys won't know what hit 'em." She said. I smiled and put my jacket back on.

"Can you tell me where they took Aquaman?" I asked her. I should probably regroup with everyone in case crazier rocket launching people show up.

"He's in a special ward. Take the elevator to the top floor, you can't miss it."

I nodded. "Thank you." I got off the bed and was halfway over to the elevator when she stopped me.

"Here," she handed me a water bottle. "Drink this, you don't want to get dehydrated." I took the bottle and thanked her again. I followed her instructions and when I got off the elevator Diana, John, Superman and J'onn were waiting and watching the doctor work on Aquaman.

"How's he doing?" I asked. Everyone looked over at me and Superman was the first to walk over to me.

"How are you doing? You were pretty close to that explosion." He said.

I shrugged. "Just a couple bruised ribs, and some scrapes. Nothing I can't handle." I said. Just as I finished the door to the operating room opened and the doctor walked out.

"How bad is it?" Diana asked him.

The doctor took off his surgical mask and put his hand to his chin. "Hard to tell. His physiology is not like ours. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." Poor man, he looked so flustered. Superman stepped up.

"But can you help him?" He asked.

"I don't know." He said. I looked past him and saw a movement in the shadows. My muscles tensed and I thought it was going to be whoever shot the rocket at us, but it turns out it was just Bats.

"Then maybe I can." He said, finally stepping out of the shadows. "Get him on a gurney, I'm going to need a water tank." At first the doctor didn't know what to think, but seeing the look from Batman he was receiving, he was practically sprinting into the O.R.

They pushed Aquaman through the hospital and into a room that had a water tank set up in it. Batman had gone ahead to get the tank ready and when the gurney came in the room, Superman lifted Aquaman up and put him in the tank. The rest of us had spilled into the room and watched as the beeping on the monitors evened out.

The doctor turned around. "His vitals, they're stabilizing." He said astounded. Batman walked over to the heart monitor and handed the doctor some papers.

"Maintain saline at 3.5 percent." He told him. He talked to the doctor some more but I had just turned around and watched Aquaman in the tank. Putting him in water makes sense since he lives there anyway, I thought. He must rejuvenate in water just like I do. I turned to see that the doctor had left and everyone had gathered around the tank.

"Same goes to you Evie." Batman said.

"Huh?" I said, coming out of my thoughts.

"Drink the water, it'll heal your ribs." I looked down and in all the commotion I forgot that I still had my water.

"Right, thanks…wait how did you know my ribs were hurt?" I asked him. He hadn't been around when I had gotten here, and my bandages were covered. Bats chose to ignore my question and he turned back towards the tank. I rolled my eyes at his mysteriousness and took a sip of my water. Immediately, the pain in my ribs had faded and I didn't feel the sting from my scrapes anymore. I smiled to myself, this is a major perk.

About half an hour later, I was sitting on the hospital bed, twirling my staff between my fingers, a habit I had picked up for when I was bored. Green Lantern was looking out the window and the rest of them had huddled around the tank.

"He's coming around." Superman said, startling me. It had been absolutely silent for the past half an hour and his voice was really loud. I got up off the bed and walked over to the tank while putting my staff away.

Green Lantern strode forward and went right up to the tank. "Good. Now maybe we can get some answers." He said. Of course he would still be upset. Don't give him a break since he almost died, let's interrogate him as soon as he wakes up. "What did you do with the plutonium?" He asked, literally banging on the glass. I raised my eyebrow, is this guy serious?

"Hey Green Bean, could you not bang on the glass like an impatient child at the zoo?" I asked him. Was giving him an attitude the smartest thing to do? No. But I don't really have a filter. Before he could crush me with the power of his ring, Aquaman woke up and floated up to the top of the tank.

"Plutonium?" He asked. He pulled himself out of the tank and took the suction monitors off his chest.

"From the submarine. You stole it." Green Lantern said. I closed my eyes and smacked my palm to my forehead. Let's not ask the Atlantian how he feels since he almost died, let's ask him if he stole our nuclear devices. Nice bedside manners, John.

"My orders were to leave that vessel where it lay." Aquaman said, sounding quite angry.

Green Lantern getting in his face probably wasn't helping the situation. "And you expect us to believe that?"

"Believe what you want. Someone tried to kill me and I need to find out who."

I scoffed, "Yeah, join the club." He looked up at me and my eyes widened once I realized what I had said. "Not to be rude or anything, I mean you have every right to go looking for them." I stammered out. "I was just collateral damage, it was really you they were after. Not that it's a good thing, cause it's not. I'm just saying you're more important than I am…not that I'm not important, it's just cause you're royalty and I'm not and…" I finally stopped when Batman elbowed me in the ribs. Everybody in the room was now looking at me strangely. "Sorry." I whispered out, looking down at my boots.

"You go by Aquatica, do you not?" Aquaman asked me. I was stunned for a second. I just sounded like a lunatic, why was he talking to me?

"Yes, that's my hero name, but if you want you can call me Evie." I somehow managed to squeak out.

"I'm sorry you were hurt when it was me they were after." He said. "I've seen what you can do with water, it is quite interesting how someone from the land can control the water so fluently."

I almost fainted right then and there. Aquaman, the King of Atlantis, was complementing me on how I control water. I stammered out a quiet thank you, and then I started grinning like an idiot. Somehow, despite how crazy I looked, Aquaman managed to give me a soft smile.

Aquaman grew quite serious again, and he headed for the door, looking to leave.

"Wait, I can help." Batman said, stepping forward. "But you're going to have to trust me." Aquaman paused for a second, then he turned around and walked back into the room. We started discussing a plan to lure the would-be assassin out of hiding in order for them to finish off the job. J'onn would morph himself into Aquaman and be taken out by stretcher. The rest of us would be waiting for the assassin, and before he can do any real damage, we would catch him. Sounds easier said than done.

Night fell and we started our trap. The news crews were waiting outside along with an ambulance, after word had spread that Aquaman was being moved to a different facility to receive treatment. I was on the roof with Wonder Woman while Bats and Superman were on a rooftop across from us. We were all looking for any signs of the assassin. "I hope this plan of yours works, Batman." Diana said into her com link.

"Just keep your eyes open." He said. Not even five seconds later, the doors to the hospital opened and Aquaman was rolled out on a gurney. Immediately the news reporters and photographers were swarming him, trying to get a picture of the Atlantian. While everyone else was busy looking at Aquaman, I glanced down and saw somebody dressed in a parka and snow hat crouching behind a mail box. I believe I just found the assassin. He could have blended in a little more, it isn't December. I thought. Plus, the poor guy has to be dying under that parka.

"Guys, isn't it a little hot for winter clothes?" I said looking down at him. Just as I said it, he pulled out a missile launcher from his duffel bag.

"There!" Wonder Woman yelled out, pointing to the man. I rolled my eyes at that. No. Really? The guy wearing winter clothes in the summer is our guy…and he's right there?! Gasp. I'm sorry, I can't control my sarcasm.

"I see him." Batman said, looking through his binoculars. Or batnoculars as I now call them. I don't know what he calls them but it's probably the boring old name for them. At least my word was more fun.

Just before the assassin could pull the trigger on the launcher, Batman had thrown a batarang and pushed it downward, so the rocket hit the ground and exploded before it could hit any people.

As soon as he realized that his plan failed, the assassin ran away and down an alley. Superman flew after him while Batman went to check on J'onn. I decided to follow Superman to see if he needed any help. Just as I turned the corner, I saw that Superman had bent over to pick up a manhole cover, but as soon as he touched it he was thrown back and electrocuted.

Batman and J'onn ran down the alley as I was bent over Superman checking to see if he was okay. J'onn phased through, and I swore I heard an engine going past even though there was no cars around us. J'onn told Diana that our would be assassin was heading her way.

"Do you have this?" I asked Batman. He looked back down at Superman and nodded. "Alright, I'm gonna go help Wonder Woman." I jumped in the air and a disc was created under my feet. God, I loved doing that! I flew to where Wonder Woman should be positioned at.

There was a giant crash as Diana pounded her way through the ground. I waited to see what would happen, and there was another smaller portion of concrete that crumbled down again. "I don't think that was supposed to happen." I muttered to myself. I heard the engine of the assassin and I flew down into the original hole that Wonder Woman made.

I caught up with him after a few turns and I smirked. Wrong move going in the sewers buddy. I decided to mess with him a little bit. I froze his motorcycle so it stopped suddenly and he was thrown forward into the water. I stopped my disc and just hovered in the air a couple feet away from him. He was groaning and struggling to get up. I guess I threw him a little too hard.

"Next time, don't run from someone who controls water in a giant tube full of water." I said to him. There was a splash behind me and Batman was standing there. I pretended to dust my hands off and turned towards him. "Well, now that that's done would you mind cuffing him? I'm sure you have handcuffs with you, right?" Even from here I could see Batman roll his eyes at me but nonetheless he walked forward.

"Don't move." Batman growled out. I finally got a chance to look at the man, even if it was for a brief second. He wore a red and silver outfit, with what appeared to be a metal helmet that encased his whole head. He had a small red scope over his right eye, I assumed that helped him shoot. Before I was even done looking him over, he had rolled onto his back and threw a small silver circle in the air just above Batman's head.

My eyes widened and before I could do anything gas came out of the disc. The second it came near me I was thrown into a coughing fit so bad that I couldn't breathe. I barely saw through the gas the assassin running away, but I was coughing so bad I never would have been able to go after him.

The gas let up a few second later and I was able to draw a small breath. "What the hell was that?" I wheezed out. Through my watering eyes I could see Batman was doubled over coughing just as bad as I was. I gathered what little strength I had and raised the water levels up quickly until it reached the top of the ceiling and I brought it down just as fast.

The gas was gone and I gulped in some air, and I could hear that Bats was doing the same. "Sorry I got you wet, I had to get the gas off of you." My voice was all raspy from all the coughing.

"It's fine." Batman said, his voice gruffer than usual. He straightened himself up and looked down the pipe in the direction our guy had run down.

"I don't suppose you know where this pipe leads, do you?" I asked him.

"This isn't Gotham, I have no idea." He said. I nodded and started jogging down the path with Bats next to me.

"Wait, does that mean you know the sewers of Gotham too?" I asked him. He only smirked at me and didn't say anything while we continued to run. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. How do you have time to actually go do things when you're memorizing maps of the sewer?"

He was saved from answering when we reached the nearest manhole. Thankfully it was uncovered, but it was still a good ten feet up. Before I could even think, Batman had grabbed my waist and pulled me to him before he used his grapple to get us both out of the sewer.

My cheeks instantly went red after being in such close proximity to him. I'm not saying I liked him or anything, it was just a little unnerving. Plus I could feel his muscles and let me tell you, they felt pretty good. Don't blame me, I may be a hero but I am still a girl. I notice these things.

Once I steadied myself on the ground I muttered a thanks, trying to let him avoid seeing my red cheeks. I doubt he did but like the silent man he is, he didn't say anything. "Come on, Superman is following him." Bats said before using a grapple to get up into the air.

"Oh, right…yeah." I had almost forgotten we were following an assassin. I jumped on a disc and followed behind Bats. We rounded the corner and saw a green van on fire and Superman holding our assassin. "Do you know who this guy is?" I asked Bats.

"His name is Deadshot. He's one of the most deadly assassins out there. He hardly misses a target."

"Well, I hate to mess up his record." I said not sounding very sorry at all. We walked over to Superman just as Wonder Woman and J'onn did.

"Gee, why would a hired gun try to shoot somebody?" he asked, laying the sarcasm on thick. "Could it be that someone paid me to?" If he wasn't a bad guy I probably would have laughed at how sarcastic he sounded. A man after my own heart.

"Who?" Wonder Woman asked him.

"Oh come on babe, you know I can't tell you that. Professional ethics." He said. I could practically hear his eyes roll as he said that.

"Oh please," I said stepping forward. "You have no ethics. Just tell us who payed you already." I snapped out. I didn't feel like standing out here all night just so some jerk can mess with us.

"So you're the girl that can control water." He said. He looked me up and down and my skin crawled. "Tell me, are there any other liquids you can control? Cause sweetheart, I would love to find out." My eyes widened as I understood double meaning behind what he said.

"What did you just say to me?" I growled out. I walked forward and practically ripped Deadshot out of Superman's grasp and held him up by the front of his suit. "Would you like me to freeze that area of your body, sweetheart?" I practically spit at him. "Cause I can guarantee that would get you singing like a song bird."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whipped my head around. "I'll take it from here." Batman said. I looked back at Deadshot to see that his eyes had gone wide. I shoved him into Batman's grip and took a step back.

I looked down and saw my hands were shaking, that's how mad I was. I'm a woman, not a piece of meat. I got enough of that kind of stuff in the Navy by the guys who didn't think I was worth anything. I certainly wasn't going to take it from some scumbag who shoots people. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll tell, I'll tell." Deadshot said. I was very pleased to hear that he sounded panicked.

"What did he say to him?" I asked Superman, curious of what Bats could have said to make him flip that fast.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Superman said. Well alrighty then.

The pair walked back over to us and Batman pushed him towards us. Deadshot dusted off his shoulder where Batman had touched him. "Who hired you?"

"I don't know. I don't ask questions." He said. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. A whole lot of help this guy was.

"Not good enough. How were you paid?" Batman said.

"In gold. See?" Deadshot looked over to an overturned chest that had an enormous amount of gold coming out of it. With the heated discussion between him and me, no one had noticed it.

"That has to be worth thousands of dollars." I said. Batman went over and picked up a piece and looked at it closely.

"Spanish doubloons." He said.

"Where would they get coins like this?" Wonder Woman asked.

I snorted "I don't know, maybe some pirates hired him." Everyone looked at me a little annoyed, except Deadshot who let out a loud snort. I looked at him furiously. "I don't remember talking to you." I said. His eyes widened and he didn't say anything else. I looked up and everyone was still looking at me. "Sorry." I said looking down at my boots. I really needed to stop doing that every time I get embarrassed, it was starting to become a bad habit.

"Atlantis. That is where you would get these coins." J'onn said. I realized he was right. With all the sunken ships and shipwrecks that have happened, especially during the times of the Spanish conquistadors, they would have plenty of treasure to just give away.

"We've got to warn Aquaman." Superman said.

"Too late." I looked up and Green Lantern was hovering above us before he dropped down onto the ground. "That royal pain in the neck's already gone. And I couldn't stop him."

"Hera help him." Wonder Woman said. I internally rolled my eyes at that, and then a thought popped into my head.

"Wait," I said. "Does this mean we are going to Atlantis?" I asked excitedly.

"It would seem so." Superman said. I squealed inside. Atlantis! The city underwater, where everyone there could control water and were super cool and watery! I wanted to jump up and down, I was so ready to go. "Come on, let's go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Deadshot trying to nonchalantly creep away. "Not so fast." I said. He tried to run and I decided it was time for payback. I froze him directly to the ground in a giant bunch of ice. "This should hold him until the police arrive." I said. Superman chuckled and walked past me.

Deadshot was struggling to get out to absolutely no avail. We all filed past him, with Bats and I going past him last. "Aw come on sweetie, a little help here?" He shivered out. I just laughed and kept walking.

"Sorry, but you aren't getting out of there. Next time you should watch your mouth." I called over my shoulder.

"That was a little harsh, don't you think?" Batman asked me.

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'. "He deserves it." I looked up and Batman was smirking again. "By the way, what did you say to him?" I asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." He said and quickened his pace so he was walking in front of me. I shrugged my shoulders. If he didn't want me to know, it's probably for the best.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Diana had gone to get the jet when the rest of us stayed behind and waited for her. We started discussing plans for how we would talk to Aquaman once we get to Atlantis. I had noticed that Batman had been very quiet and stood farther back away from the group. I walked over to him.

"Everything alright? You're even more quiet than usual."

"I'm fine." He said, not even bothering to turn towards me. "I'm not going with you guys to Atlantis. I'll stay up here and keep an eye on everything."

I guess I should have known that Bats wouldn't want to go with the rest of us. Even though he had been helping the League with the big dangers, he still preferred to work alone. "Alright, that's probably a good idea." I said. If something were to happen up here than none of us would know. "Let us know if you need anything." I had already turned and headed back towards the group when I heard the familiar sound of Bats' grapple shooting up. By the time I turned back around, he had disappeared in the shadows.

Diana had come back with the jet, so we all had piled in and headed towards the ocean. We dove under the waves and were off to Atlantis. This trip seemed longer than when we came to rescue the ship, and I started to get anxious. Despite working with the League for over a month now, I still got nervous before our encounters with the bad guys.

"We're almost there." Diana said breaking the silence. "Atlantis is just beyond that reef." I pushed aside my nerves and focused more on my excitement. I was going to go see Atlantis! I wondered what it looked like, if the buildings were made of gold, or coral, or old ships; I wasn't sure what to expect. It would be so cool to see a city that is completely underwater.

"Don't expect them to welcome us with open arms." Green Lantern said, and with that my excitement was swept away and my nerves had come back to take its place. Thanks G.L.

"Set the ship down here." Superman suggested. "Maybe we can slip under their defenses."

"Yeah, I doubt that. We are in their ocean. They probably knew we were here five minutes ago." I said. I love being right sometimes because no sooner had I said that, two explosions rocked the ship.

"Evie is right. They've already seen us." J'onn said. We all looked out the front window of the jet to see a giant ship that dwarfed ours, along with dozens of foot soldiers on their underwater jet skis.

"If it's a fight they want, they've got it." Green Lantern said glowing green and heading for the back. What is it with this guy and wanting to fight everyone?

"Wait! Remember why we're here." Diana said, stopping Green Lantern from doing anything too stupid, like start a war. That would be a pretty dumb thing to do. Even though he didn't look happy about it, G.L powered down.

"Good. Let's go talk to them." I said slipping on my air mask. Superman and Diana did the same and we opened our hatch and swam out into the middle of the vessels that were surrounding us.

"Hold your fire! We come with an urgent message for your king." Superman called out to the soldiers. I held my breath to see what they would do. A second later missiles were heading straight for us.

"Scatter!" I yelled out. Green Lantern put a shield around us to protect us from the blast and we headed towards different directions to stop the incoming soldiers. Two soldiers on speed jets were coming my way so I ducked and weaved in between the rocks to try and lose them. Unfortunately that didn't work, so I thought of a different plan. I hid on top of a rock, and when one of the jets came near me, I plunged myself on top of one of the soldiers shoulders and grabbed his neck. I flung him off the jet and he hit one of the rock formations.

However, in my genius plan I never thought about what I would do with the speed jet, you know, since I don't know how to drive it. The jet started plummeting to the ground so I jumped off and floated in the water. The jet hit the rocks below and exploded.

The other soldier following me saw the explosion and started coming in our direction. I pushed myself through the water until I was a good bit ahead of him. I stopped and turned around, looking at the jet. I waited until he was close to me and I took my staff, extended it, and clotheslined him. He flew off of his jet and sank to the bottom. I carefully swam back to where everyone else was trying to stop the larger ship from firing at us.

Superman lifted a rock and ran underneath the bottom of their sub, sinking it. "This way!" he said flying past us. We swam past another rock arch, and we saw the outline of buildings.

"There it is!" G.L pointed out and we swam faster to the buildings and as we got closer, I realized that the city was under a giant bubble. That surprised me, I thought that the city would be completely submerged underwater. I was so curious about the city, once we helped Aquaman I wanted to ask him if he could show me around. That might be a stretch though, considering I had only talked to him for a total of like, five minutes.

Once we got closer to the city, we started letting our guard down. There didn't seem to be any more soldiers following us, so we weren't in immediate danger. At least, that's what I thought. There was a blast behind us and silver spiked balls were floating past us. They reminded me of old Navy mines that you would see in movies.

We each ducked and dodged them, careful not to try and set them off. I dove down deeper and somersaulted myself over an incoming mine. I carefully weaved my way back to the others. "Not even close." Green Lantern said.

I was thrown forward into the rock wall when the first mine exploded behind us. Spoke too soon G.L, I thought. "Depth charges." I heard J'onn say. Each mine that went off caused the nearest one to go off as well, surrounding ourselves in a ring of explosions. I was being tossed against the cliffs from the pressures and forces of the explosions, and I was unable to get myself back up. After one large explosion, a piece of rock fell off the wall behind me, hitting my head and I blacked out.

Why was everything so bright? And what the hell is that beeping? I groggily opened my eyes and saw I was kneeling in a giant room, with marble floors and giant pillars. This must be one of the buildings inside of Atlantis, I thought. There was a man standing in front of Superman, speaking to him about Aquaman.

That's when I noticed the metal sensors on top of everyone's heads, I assumed that's what the beeping was. I thought my headache was because of the rocks, but now I'm pretty sure it's because of this thing on my head. What the hell were they planning on doing to us?

"Where's Aquaman?" Superman asked the man he was talking to.

"I thought your kind already took care of him." The man in the green outfit said.

"No. He came back here." Diana said, just waking up as well.

"We came to warn him about a plot against his life," Superman said, trying to make the guard understand that we wanted peace, and not a fight. "An Atlantian plot." I glanced around the room and noticed that we were surrounded by not only guards, but some civilians as well. They were all dressed in varying shades of green or blue. I wanted to look around some more, but the guard standing next to me didn't look too nice. I certainly didn't want him thinking I was trying to escape.

I noticed a movement on the balcony above me and I looked up to see one of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had red hair, that looked almost purple in the light, and she was wearing a green crop top with gold on the edges and matching pants. She had a sheer cape that trailed down her back and around her legs. Then I noticed the crown that was on top of her head. That has to be the Queen of Atlantis, I thought, perhaps she could get us out of this mess.

"Lies and deceptions!" The man Superman was talking to said. He picked up his trident and shot Superman with an electric beam. My eyes widened, why couldn't these jerks just believe what we are telling them? The force of the beam knocked Superman backwards and he laid on the ground groaning.

"I consider this latest incursion nothing less than an act of war." He said, looking at all of us.

"Yeah? Last time I checked, we didn't shoot first, you just did." I said, giving this man my meanest glare. He looked over at me and I knew I probably shouldn't have opened my mouth.

He walked over to me and knelt down, putting his trident right up against my throat. "You dare speak to me like that, you land dweller? Just because you can handle water as well as an Atlantian can, does not mean you are worth anything here." He pressed the end of the trident in my throat a little harder with enough pressure to draw blood, and then he stood back up and walked to the center of the line we were kneeled in. "You'll be executed as enemies of the crown. Then I will wipe out the surface world forever." With that threat he turned away, and we were all lead to a metal room.

The others were led in first and handcuffed to the walls. Just before I was about to enter a guard grabbed me and pushed me to the side. "This one thrives in the water. Take her to the heat chamber." A not so gentle guard pulled me out of this room and into a smaller one.

I started struggling but the guard only gripped my arm harder, so hard I'm pretty sure I'll have a bruise there tomorrow. "Umm, not to sound rude or anything but where are you taking me?" I asked him, figuring if I knew where I was going, I would be able to get myself out of this situation.

"The heat chamber." He grunted out, obviously not interested in talking to me.

"Oh, now I know where I'm going. Thanks big man!" I said in the most sarcastic tone of voice I could possibly muster at the moment. Suddenly he spun me around so my back was to the wall and my feet off the floor, while he was holding me up by my neck. This guy had a strong grip and I couldn't draw in a breath.

"Listen to me you Land Dweller, I don't like you. Quite frankly, I'm going to enjoy watching you burn up in the heat chamber." My eyes widened and I started panicking. What did he mean I would burn up? He gave me a sickly sinister grin. "That's right girl. The heat chamber is where Atlantians go to die. It's so hot it burns them to a crisp. Who knows what it will do to you when you're in there." At this point I was seeing black spots in my vision and I could feel myself about to lose consciousness, until he released my neck and I dropped to the floor.

The second the pressure was gone I started sucking in air, trying to get the pounding out of my ears and the spots in my vision to go away. I had hardly taken a single deep breath when he pulled my arm and practically dragged me the rest of the way down the hallway. He opened a door and inside was a glass container, with large vents coming into the top of the container.

My heart rate quickened and I started squirming harder. Too long in that heat, and the water inside of me would evaporate, killing me in a matter of minutes, practically burning me from the inside out. My struggles were proven completely pointless as the guard threw me in the chamber and the door locked behind me.

I scrambled onto my feet and started banging on the door trying to break it. The guard looked back at me and sneered before pressing some controls on a table in the middle of the room.

The vents turned on and I immediately felt the heat coming through them. Imagine opening a black car in the middle of the summer on the equator. Then multiply it times a hundred. Within thirty seconds of the vents turning on I could feel myself becoming dehydrated and sweat was pouring off my body. The seconds seemed like lifetimes, and I could feel my skin drying up, literally watching cracks form on my arms. I started coughing and I collapsed onto my knees. The inside of my body felt like literal fire, and I curled up into the fetal position.

I figured that this was the end of my life. The city that I was so excited and willing to see would be my cemetery. I wanted to laugh at the irony but if I did that my lungs might turn to dust. I closed my eyes, preparing for death, when I realized it had gone quiet in my glass box. Then I realized the vents were no longer on.

My eyes fluttered open and I saw a woman on the other side of the glass, the unconscious guard at her feet, pressing the buttons on the control panel. She looked up at me and I realized that it was the woman in the crown that I had seen earlier. The door to my box opened and a cool gush of wind came in.

I still couldn't move, but I felt her drag me out of the box and onto the granite floors in the middle of the room. I probably looked pathetic, trying to draw air into my lungs, but my entire body felt so dry that I couldn't do anything properly. I wondered if this is what fish felt like when they were out of water. "Perhaps this will help." I heard the woman say. Seconds later I felt a splash of water on me, and it was absolute Heaven.

Just from that one splash of water, I felt ten times better. I was able to draw in breaths without sounding like I was dying, and I could start to move my body more without being afraid it would break apart. The woman gave me another splash of water and I felt completely renewed. I sat up and looked up at her. "I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?" I asked her. She held out a hand and pulled me up from the ground so I could steady myself.

"I am Mera, Queen of Atlantis and wife to our King, Aquaman." She said. I nodded and looked down at the guard lying on the floor.

"Nice work there your majesty." I grinned and looked at her. She also smiled, but it vanished quickly and she looked quite serious.

"We must go now. You're friends are in as much danger as you were in." I frowned, suddenly worried about them. In my whole being turned into a raisin ordeal I had completely forgotten about them being chained to their own chamber. Mera and I rushed out into the hallway and back where the others were. We peeked into the door and I saw that the container the others were in was filling up with water. Now I see why I couldn't have gone in there. It would have been way too easy for me to stop the water. I checked to make sure the others hadn't drowned yet, but they were still struggling which meant that they hadn't been underwater too long.

Mera went in first, slipping through the door and behind the guards. Without warning, she picked up a silver weapon that somewhat resembled Hawkgirl's mace, and whacked both guards on the head with it. They crumpled to the ground in a heap and didn't move. I rushed into the room while Mera was already pulling the lever to drain the water that had filled the container with everyone in it.

The water was sucked down the drain like an oversized bathtub and the glass lifted up. The others were panting hard, trying to catch their breath and refill their bodies with oxygen. I didn't even bother waiting for a key and I went over to J'onn first and slashed his shackles off with a piece of thick ice. He ripped the headband off his head and sent me a smile.

Mera had already taken the locks off of John and she was making her way to Diana. "Thank you. But why?" Diana asked Mera in a weak voice. Usually I would have something sarcastic to say about the whole thing, but seeing as how she almost died I would give her a break, just this once.

"You believe someone in Atlantis had betrayed my husband. I also fear for his life, but I need your help." She explained. My heart went out to the poor woman. She sounded so desperate and sad, you couldn't help but want to help her.

"You've got it." John said, with Superman and J'onn walking behind him and rubbing their wrists where the handcuffs were. I smiled a bit at that, it was nice to see John so determined to help the Atlantians when twelve hours earlier he hated them. I personally think John needs to let lose a little bit, he's too serious all the time.

Mera had led us out of this torture building and let us walk around Atlantis. The buildings were incredible, they were all sorts of geometric shapes, and the colors weren't too bright or too dark, they resembled natural ocean colors. I was practically bouncing up and down when I was walking I was so excited. Apparently I was too excited cause Superman put a hand on my shoulder in order to calm me down a tad bit. "Sorry." I said shrugging and looking sheepish. He only smiled and shook his head. That's what I liked about him. He didn't take the small things too seriously unlike some people we know. *cough cough* John Stewart *cough cough*. Oh sorry, must have had a tickle in my throat.

Anyway, back to the tour. The best part was the giant waterfall that was in the middle of the city. It had a bridge that circled the whole thing and the sound was so soothing. It seemed like the most fitting thing to have in the center of the city. A place where air can meet water all the time.

"Your kingdom is truly magnificent." Wonder Woman said, reflecting my thoughts. "I see why Aquaman protects it so passionately."

"Unfortunately, there are those whose ambitions would destroy it." She said. I had to hand it to her, for her family being missing, she was holding all of this together very well. I suppose that must have been the Queen in her. Her people looked to her and drew their strength from her.

Mera was right with the whole destroying Atlantis bit, because when we turned the corner on the bridge guards started shooting at us, nearly hitting the Queen herself. Out of instinct, I drew the water from the waterfall and froze it creating a giant block of ice in order to protect us from them.

More guards came from behind us and I heard Green Lantern tell everyone to step back. I was too focused on my ice to really pay attention to what he was doing but I heard a giant boom and the bridge rattled, with the sounds of screaming guards following. Luckily I had jumped and formed an ice disk while everyone else floated above the hole in the bridge, with Diana holding Mera.

"Well that was easy." I said while evaporating the water from the ice into my staff, which was now back on my belt.

"Thank you." Mera said looking up at Diana.

"This fight is far from over." J'onn said looking at all of us. He flew up over the city and we all followed suit. We decided to go back to the palace in order to regroup and think of a plan. We entered the throne room, and we were all impressed. It was made completely of white marble and silver stone. On the far edge of the room sat a platform with Aquaman's throne on it, in between two black marble pillars. I was ogling at the room when my eyes found Mera.

She looked as if she were about to collapse from the stress she had been through these past two days. "Your highness, perhaps it is best if you rest for a minute." I said gesturing to the stairs in front of the throne. She gave me a grateful smile and I led her over to the stairs while the others seemed to split up to look for Aquaman. I sat with her and tried my best to soothe her.

After a few moments neither of us had spoken. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to say to the woman. She was missing her husband and son, even I had no idea what kind of pain that felt like. "You are quite talented with water." She said softly, breaking the silence.

"Thank you." I said just as quietly, not wanting to be so loud in this big room.

"It seems as if you are not Atlantian, yet you have the very powers that we have. How is that?" She inquired. I bit my lip, thinking of a way to tell her how I got my powers without boring her about my past.

"Well, I was part of the military for a little while. One day I had walked into a lab filled with chemicals, and one of them exploded. The next thing I knew when I woke up in our hospital, I could control and manipulate water." I said. I figured that would be the short and sweet version. Mera was looking at me with wide eyes, as if she was surprised that I was not born with this ability.

She seemed to have gotten over her disbelief and she smiled. "When this whole thing is over you should come back here to Atlantis sometime. Perhaps you can learn new ways to use your powers and I could gain a friend." She said looking over at me. "I may be queen, but that does not mean that I have too much time to go out on social visits. It would be nice to do girl things with someone who isn't intimidated because I am their queen." She explained.

I sent her a smile and patted her hand. "That sounds wonderful. I would love to see more of your kingdom." I said. Before Mera could reply J'onn materialized through the floor.

"We've searched the entire palace." He said. Superman and Diana flew in from an upstairs balcony.

"But there's still no sign of him." Superman said. With these words, Mera finally broke. Her strong façade cracked and it was plain as day, the pain that she was feeling. She put her hands over her face and sobs racked her body. I put a comforting arm around her shoulders and my other hand rubbed circles in her arm.

"Mera, it's going to be okay. We'll do everything we can to bring them back to you, I promise." I said to her. Just then, footsteps echoed down the hall and everyone, except Mera, looked up at the doorway. I looked up and my jaw dropped.

Inside the doorway was Aquaman, holding a baby who I presumed was his son. The joy didn't last because my eyes immediately glanced down to the red bandage covering his left hand. That can't be good. Mera must have sensed that someone else was in the room with us, because she stopped sobbing and moved her hands from her face. She finally looked up to see her husband and child in the doorway.

A look of pure joy swept across her features and in mere seconds she was sprinting across the room to get to them. I stood up from the steps and met the others in the center of the room. She tackled them both into a hug and they murmured some words to each other, but as soon as Aquaman let go of his son, we all could see the red stump where his hand used to be.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

While Aquaman wasn't freaking out over missing a hand the rest of us were. Mera immediately rushed him to their version of a hospital so he could get looked at and possibly fixed. From what I understood, the doctors didn't think they could reattach the hand, but they could put on a prosthetic.

We all stood in the operating room while the doctor put something metal in place of Aquaman's hand. The noises of the drills and the sight of all the blood was making me a little nauseas, so I did the best I could not to look over at the doctor working, instead, finding the floor tiles much more interesting.

"His own hand. I can't believe it." Superman said, still not quite believing it.

"I told you he was a madman." John said, crossing his arms.

"Is it madness to sacrifice all for someone you love?" Mera asked him. At least John had the decency to look a little ashamed for calling her husband crazy right in front of them.

"Can't you work any faster?" Aquaman demanded of the doctor. Good grief, if cutting off your own hand isn't enough to keep you down, than what is?

"This is a delicate operation, My Lord." The doctor said. "It can't be rushed." I don't know what kind of doctors they had here in Atlantis, but they freaked me out. Why were they in a full body jumpsuit? It was extremely unnerving to not see any skin at all, and only see a blue suit and some weird looking goggles.

Aquaman continued to sit in the chair, groaning in pain as the doctor attached his prosthetic on. I'm glad I wasn't in that situation, cause they would have had to have given me barrels of anesthesia to make sure I didn't feel a thing.

Suddenly a small beeping noise disturbed the continual zapping of the doctor's instruments. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but then I realized it was one of our com links. "Superman, a situation has developed up at the north pole." Ah, so Bats decided to make another appearance today. How thoughtful of him.

"What, did Santa forget to pay his rent this month?" I said loud enough for Batman to hear. I heard the loud sigh and could practically picture the eye roll and frown that was quite normal for Bats to wear when he was around either me or Flash. What can I say? We are the comedic relief to this team.

"No Evelyn." Bats said. Ouch, use of my full name. "Thermal readings show temperatures increasing rapidly."

"If that continues, the ecological effects could be catastrophic." J'onn said.

"Then let's check it out." John said, always ready for a fight, he is.

"But what about the crisis here?" Diana asked, looking over at the royal family who was gathered around the doctor.

"I have a feeling the two events are connected." I said.

Aquaman looked over at us just as I said this. "It's the doomsday thermal reactor." I blinked, not quite understanding what he was saying.

"Uh, yeah sorry but did you say a doomsday thermal reactor?" I asked. "That doesn't sound like a fun time."

Aquaman ignored me. "We designed it to create a polar meltdown."

"What?" John shouted. Great, and these two were getting along somewhat well.

"I had it built as a weapon of last resort." Aquaman explained. "To protect Atlantis, should the surface world ever attack." We all just stood there in shock, not quite believing that the Atlantians had a weapon that could kill all of the humans in practically a day. "But I never armed it." Aquaman added looking down.

"Oh, well if you never armed it I guess that makes it a-okay then, doesn't it?" I said, getting quite upset. Not only was he prepared to kill us but he would take the rest of the animals down with us? I mean honestly there are better ways to end the world then melting the North Pole. Think about the polar bears people! We need to save them!

Aquaman glared at me, but it faded when he saw just how upset we all were. His glare turned into shame, and my heart started to melt a little bit. I could see he never actually intended to use it. This doomsday device was no different than our nuclear weapons. God forbid those ever have to get used. I suddenly felt bad for snapping at him like that.

"Then Orm must have armed them," John said, interrupting the awkward silence that had settled around us. "Using the plutonium from the submarine."

"If the polar cap melts the world will sink beneath the waves." Superman said. To be honest that didn't sound like such a bad world. I mean, I would have fun, the Atlantians would have fun, but I guess for everyone else it would kind of suck. "Everything will be destroyed." He concluded. Suddenly this plan didn't sound as cool.

"We have to stop Orm." I said.

"And he will be." Aquaman said. His procedure was finally done and he stood up from his operating chair. In place of his left hand was a harpoon, attached by a gold medal holder on his wrist. That was the most metal thing I have ever seen, no pun intended. He was like a cooler version of Captain Hook. Except much hotter. What? I'm not blind. He's gorgeous.

"I'll see to it personally." He said and with the expression that was on his face I believed him. Poor Orm. He's gonna have hell to pay when Aquaman gets ahold of him.

"So, road trip to the North Pole anyone?" I asked.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Soon enough we were on our way to the North Pole. Aquaman decided to swim there while the rest of us flew. Well, I say flew but I guess you can call my version surfing. It was so much fun to skim across the tops of waves, I don't know why I didn't do it more often. Oh, that's right, cause I'm always saving the world and kicking ass.

Aquaman was pretty fast in the water, I had to go my full speed just to keep up with him. He was literally like a torpedo in the water. We reached the shore to the North Pole and he flipped himself out of the water, scaring off some seals that were chilling on the ice cap. And yes, I totally meant that pun.

"Aquaman, wait!" Superman called to him. I got off my ice disk and started walking behind Aquaman, with my staff in hand.

"Why do you follow?" He retorted looking between me and the others.

"We want to help." Diana told him.

"This is my battle." Aquaman said, obviously not budging on doing this by himself. "No one asked you to fight it."

"Well since we all live on this planet, we automatically have to help protect it." I said, flipping my staff over in my hand. "You don't get a say in that matter."

The others hovered beside both of us. "Evie is right." Superman said. "Like it or not, we have a stake in the outcome. We're not leaving."

"Just stay out of my way." Aquaman grumbled out. With all the grumbling this guy does he could rival Batman. Suddenly, a light beneath the ice exploded and we were all pushed back, but we landed on our feet. Here we go again.

The ground beneath us shook and two giant Atlantian ships rose out of the ice and started shooting at us. Superman and J'onn flew towards the closes ship while Green Lantern put himself, Diana, Aquaman and I into a ball and flew us right behind the others.

Up ahead I saw an entire squadron of Atlantian soldiers on jet skis come towards us. "Hope you guys are ready." G.L. said and he reduced the sphere, letting Aquaman land in the ocean while the rest of us flew towards the ship. G.L put up a shield to block the rays from the soldier's guns. I lifted the water up to create a giant wave that lifted all the skis out of the water and flipped them over, sending the soldiers tumbling into the water. That should stop them for a little bit, I thought.

There was a loud cracking noise behind me and I turned to see some of the big glaciers starting to crumble apart, it was getting too warm up here. "Superman, the glaciers are already starting to melt." I heard Batman say through our coms. I looked over my other shoulder and saw his bat jet moving past the glaciers on the other side.

"I know, but we've got our hands full here." Superman said into his com. In the background I could hear the firing of the guns and they were only getting louder. I whipped around and saw another fleet of skis coming towards us. Four were headed straight for me, so instead of flipping them up this time, I decided to get a little rougher. I made a wall if ice right on the surface of the water. When the skis tried to go over it, they got caught and the men were sent dozens of feet up in the air and landed with a smack in the water.

Suddenly there was a huge splash and I looked over to see Aquaman on the back of an orca, jumping on top of a group of soldiers. "That has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen." I said to myself. (And look! Another ice pun!)

I looked back around and saw that everyone else was busy fighting other soldiers, but the glaciers were still melting at an alarming rate. "We need to turn the machine off." I said into my ear com. "Does anyone copy?"

"I'm already on my way over to the machine, meet me there." Batman said. I looked around and saw that one specific glacier had heat waves coming off of it. Looks like I found the hiding place. I jumped on a disc and made my way to the glacier, with Batman catching up to me. "There's not much time." He said looking over at me. "If we can't shut that down the entire world is doomed."

"I suppose this is a bad time to say I told you so." Green Lantern said into his comm.

I rolled my eyes. "Now really isn't the time Green Bean." I said. I turned to Batman. "What do we have to do?" Before he could answer me there was a bigger rumble than before as more ice fell down into the ocean. "Wait, did it just get hotter?" I asked.

Batman didn't say anything, which meant that I was probably right. We both landed and stood at the entrance of the glacier, dodging the falling ice pieces. "Bats, we might be too late." I said, starting to get a little panicked.

"Not yet." He said as he ran into the glacier. I chased after him, right on his heels. We raced in through a side entrance and saw the giant machine sparking and smoking. Great, it's completely fried. I nervously looked over at Batman but he didn't seem to be worrying too much. He picked up a few pieces of the machine and threw them back down.

"No good. I'll have to go inside and manually shut it down."

"That doesn't sound too safe." I said, worriedly looking at the machine which seemed to be sparking even more frequently.

"Your ice, can it protect me?" Batman asked.

I paled a little bit, I wasn't sure if I could put enough ice around him without actually seeing him. "I might, but I would have to be directly with you. I'm not sure if I could do it without a visual." I quickly said, knowing that time was of the essence. Batman seemed to hesitate for a second, but he nodded.

"Alright then." I said. I stood directly next to him and closed my eyes. I imagined a layer of ice covering both of us, but with the consistency of water, so we could move without breaking the ice. To my absolute surprise it held together when we walked forward into the tube we would have to crawl into.

Batman went crawling in first and I followed behind him. We had only been in for a few moments when an explosion rocked the machine back and forth. We both paused and waited to make sure nothing would happen then we continued on at a faster pace. "We might want to hurry, just a teeny bit." I said.

It was hot as hell in this machine, and I could feel myself starting to weaken. I wasn't fully recovered from the heat chamber I had been put in earlier today, and this was only depleting me more. Plus, I was tasked with keeping both Bats and I safe from this machine, using a technique I had never done before. Needless to say, the stress was starting to get to me. "Seriously Bats, how much longer?" I asked through gritted teeth, with sweat dripping from my forehead.

"We're here." He said as we came up on a valve release. He twisted the nozzle and the machine started shutting down. As soon as he said we were safe, I release my hold on the water and it fell onto the ground. I don't even have the energy to soak it all up. I lean up against the wall and put my head back, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I probably look like a wreck at this point but I didn't care.

"You alright?" Batman asked. I opened one eye to look at him and he was staring at me, looking quite concerned.

"I'm fine. It's just been a long day." I said, resting my head back against the wall.

"I could assume that from the bruises on your neck." He said, nodding to them. Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that.

"Yeah well what can I say, me and security guards don't get along. Especially when they throw you in a heat chamber and try to turn you into a raisin." I said. He nodded so I guess he understood what I was saying. I had finally gotten my breathing returned to normal and I sat up on my knees. "Okay, let's get out of here."

We crawled back out of the tunnel to see Aquaman walking towards us. "Looks like we did it." I said.

"Then the threat is over." Aquaman said. Without another word we left the machine behind and went towards the entrance of the cave where the jet was parked. Aquaman jumped in the water and went back over to the others, presumably to tell the others the good news.

"Do you want a ride?" Batman asked me. I was quite shocked, usually once the mission was finished he would high tail it out and we wouldn't see him for a few days. I was still feeling weak so I nodded and jumped in the back. Bats got in the front and threw me something, which landed in my lap.

"Here, this should help." I looked down, and sitting in my lap was a bottle of water. I arched an eyebrow and picked it up.

"Since when do you keep water in your jet?" I asked him.

"Since the last time I got thirsty." He deadpanned out. It took me a second to realize that he was joking.

"Are you joking around with me?" I asked him. He didn't say anything but I could see him smirking in the reflection of the glass. "You are joking." I gasped. "Mark this down ladies and gents, that on this day in the good year of our Lord, the Batman of Gotham told a joke!" I said in a totally ridiculous British accent.

"Evie, just drink the water." He replied, but I could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. Soon enough we had landed where the others were. He opened the hatch and I jumped out, but I realized that he didn't.

"Are you coming with us?" I asked. He just shook his head.

"I need to-"

"get back to Gotham." We both finished at the same time. "Yeah, I know." I said. I smiled and turned around. "Hey Bats?" I said looking over my shoulder. He looked up at me expectantly. "Thanks for everything." I said. He nodded and flew off.

I turned back around and the others were talking to Aquaman. "I need to get back and fix the damage my brother has done to my kingdom." He said.

"We'll come with you, in case you need anything." Superman said. Aquaman looked reluctant but he agreed. "Very well."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We all stood in the throne room, with Mera standing next to Aquaman who was sitting in his throne. We all were behind the throne in a line. Aquaman said he needed to hear what the guards who had betrayed him had to say about their actions. He sent for them and they were escorted in.

One man was pushed to the front by the others. Poor son of a bitch, I thought. He was going on and on about how they were not to be blamed for their treason. "And surely, you must know, My Lord. Our loyalty belongs to you and you alone. We never believed in Orm's plan. But your brother forced us. The truth is we were only following orders." He said as he finished.

I didn't think for one second that Aquaman believed any of this, and I was proven right. Aquaman stood up and looked down on the guards. "Get them out of my sight." He said. From the look on his face I could understand why he was such a great king. His orders were absolute, but when the time came for it he was kind and caring. He was exactly what people needed.

"I can only blame myself." Aquaman sighed out. "My fear of the surface dwellers blinded me to those I should've feared most, and it cost me dearly." He finished the end of his sentence holding up his new harpoon hand.

"Don't be too hard on yourself." John told him. "Maybe we've all misjudged." He said. It seems that it only caused the world to almost end for these two to see the error of their ways and reach an understanding of each other. Go figure.

"Perhaps. All I want…all I've ever wanted is peace and security for Atlantis." He said, looking out at the silhouette of the buildings that made up his kingdom.

Superman stepped forward. "After what's happened, it won't be easy."

"I know." Aquaman turned around and looked at his son, who was in Mera's arms. "But some sacrifices are worth it."

"Besides, I don't think you're one for doing things the easy way." I said. Aquaman looked over at me and chuckled.

"I want to thank you all." He said, looking at each of us individually."

"It's not a problem. Anytime you need help, just let us know." Superman said. We took that as our dismissal and we started to walk out.

"Evie!" Mera called out. I turned around and she came walking forward and wrapped her arms around me, now that she had handed to baby to Aquaman. I returned the gesture. "Thank you so much." She said. She pulled out of the hug and kept her hands on my shoulders. "You are always welcome to come and visit me and my family." She said.

"Thank you." I said, "I'll make sure to stop by soon." I gave her one last smile and headed for the large doors. I had a strong feeling in me, that even though it has been a rough road between us, one day the Atlantians and the people on the land would one day live together in harmony.


	5. Paradise Lost

Hello my friends! I'm sorry this is a little later than I originally wanted it posted, but it was my birthday this week and I am getting ready to move back into college. It's getting pretty busy! I hope you enjoy this chapter, there are definitely some Evie/Batman moments in it…you're welcome! I'm not sure if I really want to put Evie in the next episode, which is War World. I've watched it a couple times and am struggling to find a good direction to go with, however if you guys want it, then let me know in the reviews and I will make it happen!

Until next time my faithful readers.

~S

Chapter 6- Paradise Lost

"…28…29…30" I huffed, out of breath with sweat dripping down my forehead. I set the dumbbell back on the holder and grabbed a towel off the shelf next to it. I dabbed at my forehead and the back of my neck and was a little disgusted at how quickly the towel became soaked. I grimaced and quickly threw the towel into the bin that held the dirty ones, grabbed my water, and headed towards the door.

It had been a slow day for the Justice League so I decided to head down to the gym and go through my old routine. I started with running 5 miles on the treadmill, an hour of core exercises, and then another 45 minutes of weights. To be honest, this is less than what I am usually used to, but considering I haven't done an actual workout routine in weeks I didn't want to kill myself within the first two hours.

As I'm heading out the door of the gym into the locker room I noticed a certain resident speedster running on the treadmill. Why would the fastest man alive be running on a treadmill? Who knows. But my curiosity got the best of me and I walked over anyway. "Flash, what exactly are you doing?"

He grinned and started slowing down a bit. "Running. It's like walking but faster." He sassed at me, knowing that I would find that annoying as hell.

"Yes Flash, I know what running is. My question to you was why exactly are you running?"

"Well, uh…you see…" he stammered out, completely stopping his machine and slowing to a stop. It was at this moment that I realized that his treadmill was positioned so that he had a clear view of the weight lifting stations, you know, the place where I just was. I should be able to have some fun with this, I thought to myself.

"Wait, you weren't spying on me, were you?" I asked him in the most innocent voice I could muster. He started getting all flustered and he tried stammering out a response but he was so nervous I don't think he knew what to do with himself. A few minutes of this and I figured that I had had enough fun. "Okay, okay Flash, chill. I'm just messing with you. Next time you want to watch me work out at least come over and spot me." I said. He immediately relaxed and went back to being his usual cocky self.

"I might just take you up on that offer Evie!" Flash said giving his usual smirk. I rolled my eyes and shook my head playfully. Over the months Flash and I had grown pretty close. Not in a romantic way, but he was more of a big brother I never had. He was always protective of me, even though he constantly flirted with me. I thought it was okay, as long as he knew that he had to take what he dished out.

I waved goodbye to Flash and headed towards the showers. I got my outfit out of my locker and went to go turn the water on. Ten minutes later I was drying off and getting dressed when my earpiece went off.

"Evie, you there?" Superman asked.

"Yeah, right here, what's up?" I asked him, immediately starting to get changed. If Superman was calling, I assumed I wouldn't be in the Watchtower much longer.

"Tropical Storm Gardner was just upgraded to a hurricane, it's looking pretty bad out here." He said. I was hopping up and down on one leg trying get my leggings on, hoping that he couldn't hear my struggles. "Could you come down with me and Diana to try and help some people out?"

I finally put on my leggings and was working on my leotard top. "Yeah, give me three minutes and I can meet you guys at the jet."

"Okay, over and out." Superman said and the small beep in my ear told me that he had hung up the call. I raced through putting my clothes on and threw my hair up in a ponytail. There was no point in it trying to look nice, especially when I was about to jump into a hurricane.

Within five minutes I was rushing to the flight deck and had met Diana and Superman in the jet. Due to the terrible weather we had to cut our flight short and literally jump out of the jet. I was practically thrown back off my board from the sheer force of the wind. I steadied myself out and listened to Superman's instructions.

"Evie, you take the south side of the city and Diana and I will take the north. Let us know if you need anything, alright?" He asked trying to stay straight in the air himself.

"Sure Supes, whatever you say." I said. I gave them a two fingered salute and headed south, toward the side of the city that had the most water in it. I headed to the harbor where the water was coming up and over the walls in waves. Nobody could possibly be out there in this weather, they'd have to be an idiot, I thought.

Turns out there is not a short supply of idiots in Metropolis. I almost missed him, but through the sheets of rain I could barely make out the outline of a man. He was wearing a bright yellow rain coat with a matching hat and boots. I would have thought this old man was absolutely adorable…if he wasn't standing on a pier in the middle of a hurricane.

"Umm, sir? What exactly are you doing?" I asked, jumping off my board and walking over to him.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Well it appears to me like you're trying to meet your maker a little early. "I'm fishing of course. These babies aren't going to catch themselves." He shouted over the wind. "Kids these days…don't understand hard work anymore. All you youngsters do is stare at electronic screens all day." He grumbled loud enough for me to hear him.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay look, I appreciate your love for the outdoors and everything and I'm not sure if you've noticed but we are currently standing in the middle of a hurricane right now! I need you to go find shelter." I said

At this point the man looked around and must have realized exactly how bad the weather really was. He quickly packed away his fishing gear and high tailed it off the pier and went home. I followed behind him to make sure that nothing happened to him, and I left when he walked through his front door.

I continued through the city for another hour or so before I heard form Superman again. "Evie, you still there?" I jumped a little bit at the sudden voice but I quickly recovered and pressed the button to respond.

"Yeah, I'm soaking wet and cold, but I'm still here."

"Good, because Diana left. It's just you and me." He said.

I blinked, making sure I heard him right. "What the hell do you mean 'she left'?"

"She wanted to go back to Themyscira, something about talking to her mom and making things right." He said. I rolled my eyes again.

"Seriously? She couldn't have gone when, oh I don't know, we weren't in the middle of a hurricane?! I understand she's a princess and all but come on, the world doesn't revolve around her." I huffed out, totally exasperated. I was already tired from trying to stay upright in this damn rain, I certainly wasn't in the mood to deal with the princess' problems.

"Don't blame her, she's having a rough time. We should be able to handle the rest of the city, right?" I still don't understand how Supes could be so calm and collected, but I decided that now wasn't the time to call Diana out on her B.S.

"Yeah, we can handle this. I think the worst of the damage is done, and everyone is inside. There shouldn't be too much to do."

After another few hours of flying around the city and keeping people and stray animals out of the rising water, the storm started to let up and we decided to call it a night. I couldn't wait to get back to the Watchtower and take a really hot shower, and go sit in the bottom of my pool and relax for a little bit.

"Oh, by the way, Diana took the jet, so unless I bring down another one you might want to go back to Gotham for the night." Superman said looking at me a little worriedly. Well there goes my plans for the night, along with the last bit of patience for the day.

"Why the hell did she take the jet? Last time I checked Diana was perfectly capable of flying to wherever she needed to go. But no, please, let's not save the jet for the girl who can't go into space without dying! No no, please, take it for yourself." I ranted, throwing my arms up in the air. Was this unprofessional? Sure. Did I care at the moment? Nope.

"Evie, she hasn't been home in 8 months. I'm sure she's homesick and wants to see her mother." Superman calmly tried to explain to me.

"Yeah? I haven't seen my mom in twelve years, but you don't see me leaving anytime soon to try and talk to her." I grumbled out. Now I was in a really bad mood, thinking that my parents and how I couldn't see them. "You know what? Forget it." I said turning away and creating a board. "I'll fly back to Gotham myself, I need to clear my head anyway." Before Superman could say a word, I was already off in the air, not being able to hear anything except my thoughts and the wind rushing past my ears.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

By the time I got home and took a shower I had managed a few hours of sleep before my earpiece went off again. "Evie, wake up." The deep voice of Superman told me. I shot out of bed, his voice startling me a little bit.

I calmed myself a little bit after I realized that nobody was in my room. "Evie!" Superman yelled again. I pressed the button to respond.

"I'm up. What's going on?" I asked him, a little grumpy from my measly three hours of sleep.

"Diana was just seen destroying a museum. I need you to meet us all there."

I started getting my uniform on and ran a brush through the mess that is currently my hair. "Okay, which museum? I can be there in 20 minutes"

"The one in Central City. Meet us on the roof once you get here." He said and with a small click I knew he had hung up. I finished getting ready, grabbed my staff, and headed toward the fire escape. I jumped on a disc and flew off as fast as I could towards Central.

I arrived there and saw that Superman, J'onn, Flash and Diana were all on the roof. I dissipated my disc and landed on the edge of the roof and walked over to them. "Of course I don't trust this Faust. But what else can I do?" Diana said with her arms crossed and a hip jutted out to the side, a classic defensive stance.

"Wow, way to start the party without me." I grumbled finally making it to the middle of the roof where they all were.

"Time is of the essence, I thought you could have been here a bit faster." Diana said to me. Really? Your ass is in trouble and you want to give me attitude? I took a step forward but I caught the look J'onn sent me and decided yelling at her wasn't worth it right now.

"I say we go back and kick that would-be sorcerer's butt." Flash said. I didn't know what sorcerer he was talking about so I stayed quiet.

"No. Men are forbidden from ever setting foot on Themyscira." Diana said quite stubbornly. Okay, what the hell is going on? I asked myself.

'Felix Faust is a sorcerer who broke into Themyscira and turned all of Diana's sisters and her mother into stone. Diana now needs to collect these artifacts and give them to Faust in order to save her mother and sisters.' J'onn spoke in my head. I jumped at first but I understood what he said. I sent J'onn a nod and a grateful smile. At least now I knew what was going on.

"Somebody should've told him that." Flash said.

"Besides, I gave my word that I would find the other relics." Diana said. Boy, for someone who wants help she sure is being stubborn about it.

"Look, the way I see it, a man already stepped foot on the island anyway therefore making the whole 'no men shall enter here' null and void anyway. If you want to save your family without being double crossed by this Faust guy then you just need to accept the help." I told her.

J'onn finally spoke up. "Evie is right, that only leaves us with one course of action. We'll have to help you." Diana smiled after he said this so I guess she finally understood she couldn't do this by herself. Why she didn't understand that when I said anything? Who knows. But thank God for J'onn.

We decided to split up in order to find the lost relics. J'onn and Flash took the jet and went one way and Superman and Diana took the other gem to find the last relic. I was about to go with J'onn and Flash when Superman stopped me.

"Evie, you should stay here, just in case something happens. That way you won't be tied down with the rest of us." I was disappointed at first. I mean, did they not think I could handle this? But with a little more thought I realized that Superman was right. Someone should stay behind in case either team needed an extra person.

I nodded, "Sure, no problem Supes." He gave me a warm smile and the four of them left, leaving me in Central City by myself. I floated up about a hundred feet above the roof and lazily flew myself around the city, waiting for anyone to call.

It was absolutely freezing and I pulled my jacket closer around me. That was really the only problem with controlling ice and water, it always made me colder than usual, which is one of the reasons that I wore the jacket in the first place. I don't know how Diana does it, wearing practically nothing. I would turn blue and shatter into a million ice cubes.

*Beep Beep* I jumped again but it was only my communicator going off. "Evie here." I said.

"Why aren't you with the others?"

"Well hello to you too Bats." I said.

"Are you busy?" He asked.

"No, I'm the back up tonight. I'm not doing anything." I told him, knowing that he was probably going to make me leave the pretty clouds I was floating in and go help with something.

"Good, you can come with me." He said. "Meet me at the university in Gotham." And with that, the man hung up.

I guess I'm going to Gotham now. I started my way over and it took about 20 minutes. I probably could have been there faster, but the weather from the hurricane was still lingering and I found myself trying to fly in heavy rain. And, as if the rain wasn't bad enough, it was lightning and thundering the whole time.

I found the University and landed on the front path that led to the doors. I looked around and didn't see Batman anywhere. "Of course he would be late. The man makes me fly through a thunderstorm and he couldn't be here on time. Typical man behavior." I huffed.

"I'm not late." A voice said behind me. I jumped and whipped around, my staff already in my hand, only to see Batman behind me with a smirk across his face. All the tension drained from my body and my shoulders slumped.

"Jesus Bats," I said putting a hand over my thundering heart. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I practically shouted at him. His smirk only got bigger and he walked past me.

"No, but I figured you deserved that since you didn't like my 'typical man behavior'." He said. I could almost see the air quotes he put in around 'typical man behavior'. Lighting flashed and illuminated the whole area in a purple-blue light.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "I'm running on three hours of sleep. It's been a long day." He just nodded in understanding, but he still seemed to be pleased that he had snuck up on me. "What are we doing here anyway?" I asked following behind him.

"We need to talk to a Professor Erlich. He should know something about Faust." He leaned up against a giant pillar and for the first time ever I saw him relax a little bit. "Do you think you could do something about the rain?" Apparently the rain was bothering him more than it was bothering me.

"Oh, yeah sure." I looked up and made the rain form a dome around our heads, shielding us from the incoming rain drops. "I'm sure you're perfectly capable of talking to a professor yourself. What am I doing here?"

"I figured you wouldn't want to be the backup anymore and wanted something to do."

Oh. Well that was oddly nice of him. It kind of made me uneasy. "Oh, well thanks." I said giving him a small smile. He suddenly looked past me and he pushed himself off the pillar.

"He's here, get behind the wall." I was confused for a second, why would he hide if we needed to talk to this guy? Apparently I was too slow because Batman grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him, and my sudden lack of concentration caused my water dome to fall to the ground with a big splash. Thankfully it was raining so hard the professor probably didn't notice it over the sound of the rest of the rain coming down.

This man was a stereotypical professor, from the messy white hair to the red bowtie, but he looked like a nice, sweet old man. He walked under the overhang and I saw his umbrella was inside out, probably due to the crazy blasts of wind, and he was soaked to the bone.

At this point Batman stepped out from the shadows. "Professor Erlich?" He asked. The poor man didn't even turn around to see who was behind him.

"Uh, no conferences without an appointment." He said, reaching for his keys in his pocket. "See my secretary if…ah!" The man didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before lighting flashed and he saw a giant bat shaped shadow behind him. I literally threw the palm of my hand against my forehead. Why did Bats have to be so dramatic? We only needed to ask him some simple questions, not give the man a heart attack.

The professor looked scared out of his mind as he watched Bats glide down to him, with his cape open. How the hell did he even get so high up in the first place? I rolled my eyes again. Batman landed and stood up to his tallest height, with his cape around him. He even looked a little creepy to me, especially with this storm raging on.

"Tell me about Faust." He growled out, in a deeper voice than he even used with me. He kept getting closer and closer to the professor until he was blocked my view by a black cape.

"Well, this is fun." I mumbled to myself. I couldn't hear what they were talking about so I figured there was no point in trying to spy on them anymore. I leaned against the pillar and waited until Batman told me I could leave. After about ten minutes the professor picked up his books and practically ran down the path and towards the street.

I figured that it was safe for me to come out of my hiding spot. "Sorry!" I called out to the professor but he was long gone. I turned to Bats. "Seriously? Why are you trying to give everyone heart attacks tonight? That poor man is so old he could have dropped dead!" I said walking over to the door which was now open.

"People tend to talk when they're scared." Really? That's all I'm getting? I just shook my head.

"Whatever. Did you get the information we needed?"

"Some of it, we need to go up to Faust's office for the rest." He said walking through the doors and into the hall of the building.

I followed him and got all the water off our outfits, made it into a ball, and put it outside. Batman turned his head and gave me a confused look. "What? We already scared the poor man, no need to get everything in the building wet too." I said.

"I didn't scare him that badly." He tried to deny it but one look from me and he seemed to realize just how pissed off I was.

"No more scaring old people." I said. "Now, which room is it?" I asked him looking at the directory.

"Fourth floor." He said and he started walking up the stairs. "I already contacted the others. They should be here soon." We continued walking up the stairs as I looked around at the beautiful marble walls.

"You know, I wanted to go here for college?" I don't know why I was trying small talk with Batman, but I figured he would at least listen. "Yeah, I had already decided what my major would be and everything. But when my parents died, plans changed…" I said trailing off at the end.

"You've never talked about your parents before." He said, surprising me that he would even say anything at all.

"Yeah well, it isn't exactly my favorite subject, you know?" I shrugged.

"Yeah, I do." He said quietly. My brows furrowed but before I could ask him what he meant we had stopped in front of a door. "Here, this is his office." He opened the door and we both walked in.

The room looked like a typical professor's room, with a desk, table and a few bookshelves. It wasn't until I took a closer look that I realized just how weird the room actually was. He had old relics and statues scattered everywhere, some of them were quite scary looking.

Within a few minutes the others had arrived and we were all looking around the room.

"Fascinating. Faust clearly has a great passion for learning." J'onn said.

"Yeah, learning about creepy stuff." I scoffed. I was over standing next to Bats looking at a book.

"Where did he get this stuff? Warlocks-R-Us?" Flash asked us. I turned around to see him holding a weird staff with a glass piece at the top.

"Uh, Flash…" I said but before I could say anything else there was a slight buzzing in the room.

"Don't touch that!" Batman said but he was a bit late. Flash turned towards us and a bolt of light shot out of the staff. Batman ducked, pulling me down with him as the bolt hit the wall and made a nice hole in it, right where our heads just were.

"Oops." Flash said, lowering the staff a little bit.

Batman stormed over and grabbed the staff out of his hands. "Don't touch anything!" He said. I flinched a bit when he grabbed the staff again. Right, let's not handle the magic staff with care, let's keep grabbing it. "We don't know what kind of powers we're dealing with." He said setting the staff back where Flash picked it up from.

I looked around and saw that everyone else had picked something up and were slowly putting it back down, making sure they didn't feel Batman's wrath next.

"So who is this Faust?" Superman asked. We all turned to Batman for his explanation.

"Felix Faust was once a respected professor of archaeology." He said throwing down a picture of a man with dark hair, sharp cheekbones and bright blue eyes standing in front of a wall of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He could have even been considered handsome, that is if he didn't have a crazy look in his eye.

"But when he became fascinated with the mystic arts he was kicked out of the university for his heretical ideas." Bats had moved over so he was standing in front of the window. "He swore revenge on those who mocked him and several later disappeared under mysterious circumstances." Batman had turned around and was staring at something on the wall.

We all followed his gaze and saw three stone masks of human faces, which looked exceptionally life like. My stomach lurched as I realized what happened to the mockers. "I have a pretty good idea what happened to them." Diana said.

I forced myself to look away from the masks and down at my boots. That was sick, how crazy do you have to be to not only turn people to stone, but hang their faces up on your wall where you can look at their terrified expressions all day? Faust was worse than we thought he was.

"EW!" Flash said, cringing a little bit and stepping away from the wall.

"He's mad." Superman added in, reflecting my thoughts of Faust.

"It gets worse." Bats said.

"Oh great, what else could he possibly do?" I muttered.

"I found his journal. The last entries make reference to Tartarus." He finished just as a flash of lighting lit up the room.

"The pit of lost souls." Diana said. I have to admit, I'm not her biggest fan but even I was concerned at just how scared she looked.

"Isn't that just a myth?" Superman asked her.

Diana turned away and glanced up at the vases that lined a bookshelf. "If only it were. Long ago, in ancient times my mother Hippolyta, fell in love with a God, Lord Hades. When war broke out between the Olympian Gods and their ancient foes, the Titans, Hades struck a treasonous bargain with the enemy.

"He would deliver Mount Olympus into the Titans' hands. In return he would be given dominion over all humanity. Hades tricked my mother into opening the gates of Olympus to the invading Titans. There was a battle of which the muses still sing.

"The Gods fought back and eventually prevailed. As punishment for his treachery Zeus cast Hades into the pit of Tartarus where he would rule over the dead for all eternity. And for her unwitting role in Hades' plot, my mother was charged with guarding the gateway to the underworld. To make sure the gate could never be unlocked its only key was broken up and scattered across the globe. Mother told me she kept one of the pieces in the temple, as a daily reminder of her eternal shame."

"Then these relics we've been gathering are parts of the key?" J'onn asked. Superman held up the connected parts of the key we had, but it was taken out of his hands by Flash.

"But why would Faust want it?" He asked, looking down at the key. In a flash, pun totally intended, Batman had grabbed the key out of Flash's hands and set it down on the table.

"Only one reason." Batman said.

"He wants to release Hades from the pit, doesn't he?" I asked out loud. My only response was the clicking of the stones connecting into the rest of the key.

Batman turned around and said, "He intends to use it." I just stood there in shock, not fully being able to wrap my head around the fact that we are now dealing with Gods from Olympus instead of some weird man with an obsession for creepy trinkets.

"Where is this gateway to the underworld?" Superman asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Beneath Themyscira." Diana said. Of course the door that should never be opened under any circumstance would be exactly where we would need to go with the key that unlocks said door. Not like it could have been halfway around the world under a volcano or somewhere else that was practically impossible to get to.

"Diana, you can't give Faust the key." Superman told her.

"If I don't, my mother and sisters will remain petrified forever." She tried arguing but I quickly spoke up.

"Yeah and I'm starting to feel a little sympathetic towards you, but if you give him that key then we are all gonna be turned to dust by Hades. I think there is a bigger picture we need to look at here." I said. The look she gave me probably would have killed me had J'onn not stepped in between us.

"What are you going to do, Diana?" He asked her. I wasn't being sarcastic before, I was a little sympathetic towards her. It's hard to pick between family and the rest of the world, but sometimes the best thing to do isn't the easiest thing.

She kept looking at us with such a defeated expression on her face. I sighed and stepped out from behind J'onn. "Look, we are all willing to help you Diana, you just need to be willing to break a few rules." Everyone looked at me questioningly so I just continued.

"Look I know your people don't like men, but the only way to prevent Faust from getting that key is if we all go and stop him." She looked like she was going to protest but I held up my hand to stop her. "Faust probably won't be expecting you to have anyone else with you. You have him release your mother and sisters, you hand him the key, we all pop out and take the key back from him and haul him off to a nice jail cell." I said shrugging, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"That could work," Superman said rubbing his chin. "but we would have to work out some details first." I smiled to myself, feeling like for the first time today I had actually helped out on this case.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We had gone over the plan a bunch of times and fine-tuned the details, but for the most part it was the plan I had come up with. We all went to the jet and headed towards Themyscira. I decided to pass the time by looking at the clouds going past us and imagining the different shapes they made. It was a game I played as a child and it always soothed me.

Within no time we had landed on Themyscira and were heading towards the main temple. I wanted to look around but I figured time was of the essence and we needed to hurry. "Okay, Diana goes in by herself, Flash covers one side, J'onn and I will cover the other and Batman and Evie will go by themselves. We all know the signal, right?" Superman whispered to us looking around.

"If we didn't know the plan the first two hundred times you asked, I'm sure we won't know it on the two hundred and first time Supes." I said patting his shoulder.

"Alright then, good luck." He said while Flash dashed off to one side of the building and Superman and J'onn went to another part. I looked at Batman and he was already grappling up the building, heading towards a hole in the roof. I followed him up on my board, and we both climbed through the hole and hid on the shoulder of a giant women with an owl on her shoulder.

Sorry Athena, I thought to myself. Batman and I kneeled down and saw Diana rush in the room and confront Faust. We couldn't really hear what they were saying but we saw Faust turn around and hold up a circular object that glowed. After he held it up to a statue of a woman, the 'statue' became a real life woman who collapsed on the ground. Faust had turned around and picked up the key while Diana went to check on her woman, who I assumed was her mother.

Faust turned back around and held up the circular disc to Diana and her mother, but with a blur of red, the disc was out of his hands and into Flash's.

"That's our cue." I whispered. Batman grappled down to the ground, and hit Faust in the face and I hovered down next to him.

"You brought men here? To Themyscira?" Diana's mother asked her. I rolled my eyes and turned around.

"Yeah, be lucky she did or else you would still be a statue." I growled out. I was slowly running out of patience for princesses and gods today.

"Did you really think she'd trust a scum like you?" Batman asked Faust who was currently laying on the ground holding his jaw. Superman and J'onn flew out of their hiding spaces and flanked Batman on either side.

"It's over Faust. Come along quietly." Superman said.

"Never!" he said, throwing a bolt of light from his hands, causing the men to scatter themselves.

"Here we go again." I mumbled. I pulled my staff off my side and extended it to its full height. Faust kept trying to take out different members, but the blast didn't do anything to Superman and Flash was too fast to get hit by the lights.

I guess Faust realized this because just as Flash was heading towards him, Faust broke up pieces of the ground and Flash tripped over them and rolled across the room. I rolled my eyes, for the fastest man on Earth he sure was the clumsiest.

While Faust was watching Flash, J'onn shoved Faust down some stairs, causing him to drop the key. I moved forward and stood next to J'onn. As soon as Faust recovered he threw a bolt at J'onn but it went straight through him. Frustrated, Faust conjured up a bigger ball of energy and through it our way. I dove to the side and sat up, making sure that no one was hurt. It appeared that no one was hurt.

Straight across from me Batman was thrown forward and landed on the ground. I saw a movement next to him and I saw a column about to topple and fall on him. My heart lurched into my throat as I saw that he wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time. I scrambled to get on my feet to try to help him, but thankfully Superman was quick enough to catch the column before it could fall.

I let out the breath I had been holding in, and looked around for Faust. I saw him running towards the doors with the key in his hand. "Oh no you don't." I said. I threw some water at him and created a sheet of ice.

His feet went flying out from under him and he was thrown up in the air by his momentum, but before he landed a wire flew through the air and wrapped around him. I looked back and saw Batman struggling to pull Faust forward. Diana joined the fight and decided to pull out her lasso and help pull Faust.

I looked back at Faust just in time to see a purple light fly up the length of the cords and electrocute both Batman and Diana. They both flew back with a yell and laid on the ground. I ran back towards them and kneeled next to their heads.

"Are you guys alright?" I asked. Before they could answer there was a rumbling coming from the ground and four tentacle looking vines came out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Superman and Flash. "I hate magic." I grumbled.

By this time Bats and Diana were moving so I left them and went to go help the others. Flash had picked up a sword and tried slashing the plants, so I made an ice sword of my own and stood next to him, trying to help.

"Anybody got some weed killer?" He asked, right before a vine wrapped around his waist and hauled him in the air.

"Now isn't the time to be funny, Flash." I called up to him. My yelling cost me, cause the second I looked up at him the vine wrapped around me, causing me to drop my sword and I was hoisted into the air.

Did I mention these vines have thorns? Cause they do. And they hurt. A lot. I tried prying the vine off me but there was no use. I looked around and saw J'onn, Flash, and Superman were all hanging from a vine, all of them being completely useless. I tried conjuring up more ice but I was swinging around so much that I couldn't make a proper form.

Apparently Diana and Bats had joined the fight because I heard Diana call out to her mother and her voice was directly underneath the vine that was holding me up. A little help here? I thought, but she was going to be too distracted by her mother to be any help to us.

I was being thrown around some more and I was starting to feel a little motion sick. Everything was just a colorful blur and it was all moving too fast. Suddenly, the vine holding me up became very brittle and it snapped, sending me falling to the floor.

I hit the ground and I felt all the air leave my lungs. I closed my eyes as I waited for the ringing in my ears to subside and I tried taking in deep breaths. When I opened them a minute later, Batman was standing over me.

"Are you ok?" He asked, looking over my body for injuries. I suddenly became very self-conscious and sat up quickly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I weakly said. Bats held out his hand and I grabbed it and he pulled me up. "Thanks." I muttered.

Batman looked to the other side of the room where some of the others were gathered. "Faust is gone. And he took the key and Hippolyta."

"Great." I said. We both walked over to the others to see what they were looking at. There was a small crater of dust on the ground, where Faust must have made when he teleported himself out of the building. Bats bent down and rubbed his fingers through the dirt and rubbed them together, as if he could tell what kind of dirt it was just from the sight of it.

"There's only one place they could have gone. Follow me." Diana said quietly and started walking towards one of the walls of the chamber. We all looked at each other and then followed her.

She took a torch off the wall and walked over to a door that blended in with the surrounding walls. She pressed a concrete slab on the wall, and it sunk in, revealing a dark stairway that headed down into the Earth.

Diana went first into the tunnel lighting the way, followed by Batman, Me, Flash, Superman and J'onn.

I looked around at the walls and marveled at the marble designs.

"Woah, what's that smell?" Flash asked. I sniffed a little and realized the stairwell did have a weird smell, almost as if something had been out in the sun for too long.

"Don't ask." Diana said, responding a little too quickly for my liking. If she didn't want to tell us then I wasn't even going to think about what it was.

We went down what seemed to be thousands of stairs until we reached the bottom and it walked to a giant cavern, full of crumbling structures and stones. As we walked closer to the edge of the cliff I saw that an entire city was here, wasted away to rubble and dust.

Suddenly the floor started to shake and there was a large grinding noise, as if two giant rocks were sliding against each other. We headed to where the sounds were coming from and saw that a giant mechanism was opening a very ancient looking door.

"Uh oh." I said. Everyone sprang into action. Superman grabbed Batman and held him as he flew. J'onn grabbed my arm and carried me. I didn't mind and I guess in this case it was a little quicker than flying.

"Hera help us." Diana said. Suddenly the doors opened and a bright yellow light shined through, temporarily blinding me. The light was so bright it was like looking into the sun. I immediately felt he temperature in the room heat up. That probably won't be the best thing for me, I can feel it now.

Suddenly a dark figured stepped out of the light. His silhouette was tall and broad, like he was perfectly muscular. I was hoping he was wearing a helmet, at least I hoped it was a helmet. It had red eyes and two giant horns coming from the top of its head.

We couldn't hear what they were saying, but Faust had kneeled down in respect for his master, and then he gestured to Hippolyta. The man finally took off his mask to reveal quite a handsome face. He had dark hair, the darkest shade of black that I had ever seen. He had a neatly trimmed goatee that accentuated sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw. All in all he looked quite handsome, I can see how Hippolyta could love him.

Hades leaned in and touched Hippolyta's face, squeezing her chin so that she was forced to look at him. Thankfully the little love fest ended when Faust walked over and interrupted them.

By this time we had stopped flying and were hiding behind some pieces of rock, at least all of us except Diana. She flew down and hid behind a pillar close to her mother. Suddenly Hades touched Faust and with a scream he became an ancient looking man. Faust fell to the ground and I looked down in disgust.

"Good Lord." Superman said, apparently feeling just as awed as I was. At this point, Diana must have had enough because she ran from behind her hiding place and grabbed a sword out of a long dead soldier's chest.

She jumped over the column holding her mother and broke her chains, letting her free. Hippolyta slid down and landed on her feet. Hades looked confused for a second, but then he smiled. Not a nice smile either, but one of those 'I'm going to kill you' smiles.

He stepped forward and said something, then he opened his mouth and with a roar he blew a fireball out of his mouth. It hit a column that Diana and her mother ducked behind for cover.

"Are you kidding me? This guy breathes fire now too?!" I asked to no one in particular, but Flash grunted in agreement. Hades stepped through the smoke and flames and he appeared to have grown in size. He was now towering over Diana.

"I wonder if she's as loving as her mother." He said, his voice now echoing off the walls of the cavern. Suddenly Superman flew out and gave an uppercut to Hades, but it only made him stumble back a little bit. Superman went in for another hit but he was met with a backhand that sent him flying and he landed in a pile of rocks.

A whoosh went past my head and headed straight for Hades. It was a batarang, and I knew that it wasn't going to do us a bit of good. Unfortunately I was right, Hades caught it and looked at it curiously. The batarang exploded and when the smoke cleared Hades was walking forward without a scratch on his body.

Batman threw another one but Hades deflected it and it exploded behind him. The rest of us knew it was our turn, so Flash and J'onn raced forward and I followed behind them. Flash raced around Hades trying to throw in a punch, but he didn't feel anything.

Hades must have had enough because he blew a column of fire at Flash. Flash, of course, outran it and said something about breath mints. I don't know, I was too busy to pay attention. I tried freezing his fire, hoping that the cold would stop him. I started freezing the area around him, but Hades barely acknowledged me as he threw up a hand, which caught me in my ribs and sent me flying through the air about twenty feet. I landed on the ground with a thud as the breath was knocked out of me again.

I rolled over onto my stomach and kneeled, trying to force air into my lungs again. I saw Hippolyta had grabbed some weapons and was stalking toward Hades, with a murderous look in her eyes.

"You dare to challenge a God?" Hades yelled out. He threw his hands up and the rocks that he was standing on jutted up into the air. It was silent for a half second, and then something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, effectively loosening the grip on whatever had me and I threw a slice of water at it, cutting off a hand.

"Ew! Ew ew ew ew!" I said, trying to shake the remainder of the hand off my ankle. Then two more arms came out of the ground and grabbed my knees. I immediately swung my staff down and sliced the hand off at the wrist. I flew onto a board and levitated off the ground, enough that nothing that came out of the ground would be able to grab me.

"Is this guy seriously fighting us using dead guys?" I shouted.

Corpses started popping out of the ground, wearing ancient Greek outfits. These bodies were rotted, practically skeletons, with red lights in their eye sockets. I watched as Batman and Flash were both pulled down to the ground.

"Behold, the fate of all heroes." Hades said, standing proudly on his mound with his arms cross. I threw an ice dagger at him, hoping to catch him by surprise. Of course, the God caught my crystal and threw it back at me, with an even deadlier accuracy than what I had. I had seconds to react, so I jumped off my board and fell to the ground.

It was a stupid decision really, because as soon as I landed I was immediately grabbed my rotted hands. I looked up and saw that these things were not only coming out of the ground, but through tunnels in the walls and in different crypts that I hadn't noticed before.

This army of the undead came charging at us and soon I was surrounded by hundreds of them. I ripped my arms from the grips of the ones that were holding me, and tried to fight them off. It worked for the first three zombie things but after that I kept getting more and more overpowered.

I saw Superman fly over me and went to flash. Then I saw Batman using his grapple to get high above the zombies. "Well, I guess it's up to me then." I said, since no one was coming for me. I kicked a zombie so he bent over, then I jumped on his shoulders and as high into the air as I could. I was able to form an ice board under me and I flew to the ceiling, trying to get the feeling of dead people off me.

From the air I was able to freeze whole blocks of these things together, although with the heat the fires were creating, it didn't look like they would stay frozen for too long. But I figured that it would buy me enough time to try and find a way to stop this army.

After I had frozen about five blocks of these soldiers I looked over just in time to see Hades throw another ball of fire at Batman and J'onn. Without thinking I flew over and put up a giant wall of ice. It bought them a few seconds, but it was no use. My wall broke from the impact of the blast. My board melted as well, so I stumbled on the ground but I kept running.

A few seconds later the impact of the blast caught up with us and we were thrown through the air. When I hit the ground I flipped over and must have hit my head on something because when I landed next to Batman I saw stars dance in front of my eyes. I laid there for a minute, trying to get my bearings straight.

I heard Hades laughing in the background, but I couldn't make out what he said after that. Everything in my head was spinning and ringing, I couldn't even open my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder and on instinct I flipped over, grabbing the hand about to throw it off me.

"Evie!" Batman shouted at me. He must have been talking to me for a while, but due to the ringing I couldn't hear him. After another moment the ringing in my ears had finally stopped and I could hear him now. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking at my head.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just hit my head." I said. "That's the second time you've helped me up today." I said.

"Don't make it three." He said. He helped me stand up and we looked at Hades, who was encased in a blue light. The blue light vanished, but in its place stood Hades, but he looked even worse than before. Now he had a cat-like face with horns coming out of his head and three tongues sticking out of his mouth like three snakes.

"Man, today just sucks." I said. Batman just looked at me and pulled me over to the side.

"Stay here." He said and he tried walking away. Stay here? I don't think so.

I reached forward and grabbed his arm. "And why the hell am I staying here?"

"You're hurt." He said. Apparently he thought that explained everything.

"Everyone is getting hurt Bats. I'm not sitting out just cause I hit my head." I said. He tried giving me his famous bat glare, but I glared at him right back. Another rumble shook the place as Diana was thrown into a column and slammed to the ground. Ouch.

"Fine, but you stay with me. Understand?" He growled. I nodded and let go of his arm, which I was still holding onto. Oops.

Bats turned around and began to run, dodging in and out of the shadows, trying to stay out of sight. I don't understand how he does that all the time but that is really hard! We were moving closer to where Diana, Hippolyta, and Hades were.

Suddenly Diana flew over to the opening of the door and landed in front of the key. Hippolyta was thrown down by Hades and he kneeled over her, pinning her arms above her head. What did she even see in this guy anyway?

"Diana, destroy the key!" Hippolyta yelled out to her. Hades knocked Hippolyta out, got up and ran over to Diana, who was struggling with the key. Just before he got there, Diana had lifted the key up over her head and turned around to face him.

"No!" Hades yelled out reaching for Diana.

"Back to the pit, you monster." She yelled, throwing the key down and it shattered into pieces. A bright golden light flew up from the broken key and into the doorway of the underworld. A spiral was formed and it started sucking everything into it.

Hades was trying to scratch and claw at the ground, anything to avoid being sucked into the pit. I dug my feet into the ground but I was still slowly being sucked in. I looked over at Batman and saw that he was trying to hold onto the pillar we were in front of.

The suction was increasing with each second. I looked back and saw that Bats was struggling just as much as I was. Suddenly his feet slipped out from under him and he went flying towards the opening.

"No!" I yelled out, letting go to the post I was holding onto and I was being sucked with him. The doorway was approaching faster and faster and I wanted to close my eyes. The heat coming from the doors was incredible. If hell doesn't kill me, the heat will, I thought, knowing that it was probably going to be my last thought on this earth.

Suddenly a hand grabbed my waist and I felt myself being pulled away from the force of the wind. I looked up and yet again, Batman had come to save the day. The man had somehow been able to shoot a grapple, have it wrap around a column, grabbed me, and was now holding on for dear life so we both weren't sucked down into an eternal pit of fire.

"What were you thinking, letting go?" He shouted at me. I rolled my eyes. Even in the face of being sent to hell he would still have something to be angry over.

"You told me to stay with you, so I did." I yelled back, grinning cause I knew he would probably get pissed off at that answer. Suddenly the wind died down to a stop and Bats and I land on our feet. I looked over at him he had a small smirk on his face.

Something deep inside of me hoped he was smiling at what I said, but the more reasonable side of me said he was just happy to be alive.

We looked over at the door and saw all the gears shifting back and locking themselves. Diana and Hippolyta were kneeling in a pile in front of the door, trying to catch their breaths.

I looked around the room at the damage that had been done, and thought about the fact that a Greek God was almost released and wanted to destroy humanity. "I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm gonna need a lot of alcohol tonight." I said. Flash started chuckling, then J'onn, then Supes. Of course, Batman was too cool to laugh, but I swore he nodded his head in agreement.

After a few minutes, all of us headed back up the stairs that led us out of the cavern. Well, I didn't walk. I had persuaded Flash to give me a piggy back ride all the way up. It was nice, not having to walk up a bazillion stairs.

We go up to the entrance to see that all of Diana's sisters were still stone. The magic hadn't been revered and Faust was long gone. Hippolyta buried her face in her hands. Poor woman, she had been through so much in the past day, I would have been a hysterical mess by now.

"Is there nothing we can do for them?" J'onnn asked.

"I still have this snake-headed doohickey." Flash said, pulling the medusa medallion out of his pocket.

"But only Faust knew the spells. Without him…" J'onn said, but he stopped when the sun rose and hit the medallion. It started glowing and flashing and it must have become hot because Flash dropped it, yelling ow.

The medallion continued to glow until it was so bright I had to shield my eyes. When I opened them, the previous stone figures turned into woman.

"But how?" Flash asked.

"Faust's enchantment could only last as long as he willed it." Batman said.

"So now that he's gone, the spell is broken." Diana said, looking around at all of her sisters. I looked back at Flash and I thought his jaw was going to hit the floor. All these beautiful woman and he was right in the middle of them. It must have been a dream come true.

"It's a miracle." Diana said, hugging her mother.

"Athena be praised." Hippolyta said looking around at her island. I, personally, was glad that her sisters were okay and everything but at that point in time I really just wanted to get home. My three hours of sleep was catching up to me and my head had started to throb again.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We were getting ready to leave the island when Hippolyta decided to have a ceremony for us on the beach. We were in the middle of the ceremony when my eyelids were growing heavy and I was having a hard time staying awake.

"And for your brave assistance against the sorcerer, Faust, and the mad God, Hades, you have earned our eternal gratitude." Hippolyta said. She was sitting on her throne and she looked exactly like a queen should have looked.

"Did you hear that? Eternal gratitude. After she hands out the medals how about you and me taking a private tour of paradise?" Flash said to the Amazonian guard standing next to him. I reached over and slapped his chest lightly.

"Stop flirting with the Amazons." I mumbled.

"She wants me." Flash said.

"Yeah, sure." I said, just as J'onn said "Indeed."

"Before you leave please accept these royal offerings." Hippolyta said, ending whatever Flash was going to say next. Diana and some other Amazonians stepped forward and gave us golden wreaths to wear around our heads. I held mine, not wanting to put it on. Knowing my luck I would break it.

"You are all truly heroes." Hippolyta told us. Well, that's nice to be acknowledge for your work every once in a while.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Superman said, bowing respectfully as he spoke. I leaned my head on J'onn's shoulder. This whole thing was taking too long.

"Diana, Princess of Themyscira, stand forth." The queen said to her daughter. Diana stood in front of her and bowed her head respectfully. "As your mother I am overjoyed that you have finally returned to us." Uh oh, there sounds like there is a giant 'but' coming here. I stood up straighter, waiting for what she was going to say.

"But as your queen I am obliged to uphold the laws of Themyscira. And in bringing these outsiders to our island you have broken our most sacred law. This cannot be overlooked." She said, looking sternly at her daughter, but behind the cold mask I could see that this was killing her to say it just as much as it was hurting Diana to hear it.

"But, mother…" Diana tried protesting but Hippolyta stopped her by holding up her hand.

"Diana, I have no choice. It is with a heavy heart that I must exile you… from Themyscira" She said while standing up from her throne.

I shook my head and looked down at my boots. This was totally unfair. Flash stepped forward, and I tried to grab his arm to pull me back but I couldn't grab him quick enough.

"You can't do that! She risked her butt to save all of you." He said pointing up at the Queen. "She…Hey!" Four different spears were pointed at him and he quieted down.

"Please, she did this because she loves you." Superman tried pleading with the queen. "You can't punish her for that."

"No, mother's right." Diana said quietly. "I did break the law and I humbly accept your judgment." She looked up at her mother for the last time. "The fates were against us mother." She said, her eyes filling with tears. "Goodbye." She said, turning away towards the jet.

The look in Hippolyta eyes broke my heart. She looked like she wanted to take it all back and run down and hug her daughter, but her duties as a queen came first.

"Present arms!" One of the guards called out. The warriors lined up and held their spears out, their way of saluting Diana, and saying goodbye.

"That's it? You're just gonna walk away?" Flash yelled again.

"Flash, stop it." I whispered, grabbing his arm but he just shrugged me off.

"This is so bogus." Flash said turning to Hippolyta. Suddenly an arm reached past me and grabbed Flash's arm.

"Don't make this harder than it already is." Batman said to him. We all walked back to the jet, but Diana stopped at the bottom of the ramp. She stayed quite still for a minute, then with her head held high, she walked into the jet and didn't look back.

I walked on after Bats did, and I found my seat. I buckled myself in and leaned my head against the window. I felt the stress from the day fall onto my shoulders, exhausting me even more. Diana will see her again, their bond is too strong to be broken, was the last thought I had before I fell asleep.


	6. Evie's Day Off

Chapter 6: Evie's Day Off

I do not own anything form D.C Universe, only my O.C.

The sun light filtered through my curtains and somehow a beam of light managed to find its way directly into my eyes. Usually I would grumble a little bit and turn over, and try to get a few more hours of sleep, but not today. Instead I popped out of bed and threw open my curtains. Sunlight streamed in and I saw it was an absolute beautiful day in Gotham.

But Evie, why are you up this early? Well, Superman gave me the day off today. Since I have been on every single major mission the League has had to handle, I was given the day off to relax and recuperate. And boy, was I going to take advantage of it.

I ran into the bathroom and took the quickest shower of my life. Within thirty minutes I had changed into dark skinny jeans, a light grey long sleeve shirt, my combat boots, and a black beanie; eaten breakfast, drank my coffee, and got my bag together.

I decided I might as well be a responsible adult and call the Watch Tower to make sure that they wouldn't need me for anything today. When I called in, Hawkgirl answered.

"Isn't it your day off?" She asked, completely skipping the hellos.

"Yeah, I just wanted to double check that you guys didn't need me for anything."

"Nope, we should be good here. Superman and J'onn are moving an asteroid so it doesn't hit the Earth, and that should be it," She said. I could hear some machines going off, meaning she was in the monitor room.

"Okay then. Let me know if there is anything important and you need help," I said. She agreed that she would let me know and we said our goodbyes and hung up.

I looked around, making sure I had everything I needed and I locked my front door. I headed towards the steps and went out to the main street. I took a deep breath and smelled everything, from the smog to the hot dog cart down the street. And I loved it.

Some people love the smell of fresh air, and I do to, don't get me wrong, I just found the smell of a city comforting. Considering it had been ages since I had been in Gotham during the day, I wasn't quite sure what to do.

I thought back to what my mom and I used to do when we went to the city for the day. Usually she would stop by the office building to make sure she had all her work done, then we would go get lunch together at a small café. After lunch, we would always go to the big book store that was in the middle of town.

I smiled at the memories and decided that was what I would do today, go to the bookstore. I went over to the bus stop and waited about five minutes for the bus. I sat down in the back so I could see everyone that got on. Even on my day off, I was still careful of my surroundings.

After about a twenty minute bus ride I was standing in front of the store, looking up at the big white pillars and the nice clean stairs that led up to my own little slice of heaven. I hurried up the stairs, and pushed past a giant group of people with cameras.

I didn't pay them much mind as I went in through the revolving door and into the store. The smell of millions of pages of paper and the distinct aroma of coffee from the small café in the corner wafted up to my nose. Some people get high from drugs, I could go to cloud nine just from this smell.

I decided to head to the very back of the store and work my way up to the front. I was browsing the aisles, looking for familiar titles, authors, and reading the summaries on the back of the books. I don't even know how long I was browsing, but before I knew it I was at the other end of the huge store and was about to turn down the next aisle.

Turns out I was too absorbed in my browsing, and I wasn't looking where I was going. I ran into something hard and I fell back onto the floor, dropping the one book I had already picked up and was carrying with me. I looked up to see what I ran into and I saw the most gorgeous man I had ever seen.

"I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" He asked me. My mouth couldn't work and I probably looked like an idiot just staring at him. He raised an eyebrow and I snapped out of my stare.

"Oh, yeah. I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," I said trying to stand up. The man held out his hand and grabbed mine, and lifted me off the ground with one pull.

"No worries, I understand. Sometimes you just get absorbed in a good book and you lose yourself," He said with a dazzling smile.

He looked like a God, and then there was me, only able to nod like an idiot. He had pitch black hair that was neatly trimmed and dark eyes, so dark they almost looked black. I imagined if they had the right light you would be able to see a beautiful array of different browns. Not only was his face gorgeous but so was the rest of this body. It may have been covered by an expensive looking suit, but I could see the outline of all his muscles. He must have put some serious hours in at the gym. His physique could almost rival Superman's.

I finally looked back at his face, thinking he would be ready to walk away by now, but instead he still had that grin plastered onto his face. I snapped out of my stupor, and realized that I was being super rude.

"I'm so sorry, um my names Evelyn. Evelyn Lowry," I said, holding out my hand for him to shake. His grin got bigger as he gripped my hand.

"Bruce. Bruce Wayne," He said. My eyes widened and I mentally slapped my hand against my forehead. Of course! Why didn't I recognize him? Bruce Wayne is only the most famous person Gotham has ever produced! He must have been the reason why the paparazzi were outside the store earlier, waiting for him to come out.

"Yes, of course Mr. Wayne," I said, instantly feeling very self-conscious of myself. His grin slipped a little and something flashed across his eyes, an emotion that I didn't quite catch.

"Please, just Bruce," He said, "Don't feel like you have to treat me differently just because you now know my name." In an instant his face hardened and he lost his care free posture. His stance and hardened stare looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off that way. I just didn't want to show any disrespect. Not that me knowing your name means I respect you any more or less, it's just you're the most famous person in Gotham and I wouldn't want to be rude," I said quickly and I realized that I had started rubbing the back of my neck again. As I rambled his grin returned and his posture went back to his care free stance.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, if anything I should be watching what I say around you. Being a member of the Justice League is pretty important. More important than being rich," He said, leaning his arm against the bookshelf and leaning on it.

I tucked a piece of hair that escaped my loose ponytail behind my ear. "I didn't think anyone would recognize me without my outfit on."

Bruce chuckled and his beautiful eyes met mine. "Evie, it's not like you hide who you are. Besides, I'm actually quite a fan of yours," He said and my face, if possible, flushed into a deeper shade of pink.

Wait, was he flirting with me?! Ohmygosh, what am I supposed to do? I thought. My shyness got the best of me and I looked down at my boots and muttered a quiet thank you. Bruce chuckled again and picked up the book I had dropped and handed it back to me.

"The Princess Bride," He said. "I've never read it. Any good?"

"Yeah," I said, taking the book and looking fondly at the cover of it. "My mom used to read it to me all the time," I said looking back up at him. Something flickered across his eyes but it was so quick, I figured I imagined it. I realized that we had been talking for a good while now and I figured he has more important things to do than talk to me all day.

"Well, I don't want to keep you all day, Mr. Wayne," I said but he gave me a pointed look and I corrected myself. "Bruce. I don't want to keep you all day, Bruce." I said. He nodded and looked towards the front doors.

"I suppose I should get back to work. Although the company is much better here than anywhere else I'll be going to today," He said sending me a wink that practically covered my entire body in a blush.

"It was nice meeting you," He said, pushing off the bookshelf and straightening his jacket up. "Do me a favor, will you?" He asked. I looked back up at him and nodded. His face turned hard once again and he looked quite serious. "Be careful, alright?"

His request shocked me, not only because of his sudden mood change, but because of his request. Why would Bruce Wayne care if I got hurt? I didn't want to think too much into it so I only nodded and said, "Sure, I'll do what I can." Bruce seemed hesitant to believe this answer but he didn't say anything more.

"Have a nice day, Bruce," I said. He smiled at me and walked down the main aisle of the store and headed towards the front door.

"You too, Evie," He called out over his shoulder and threw me a wave. I watched him walk out the door and immediately the paparazzi were swarming around him and practically blinding him with the flashes from their cameras.

I smiled, not quite believing that Bruce Wayne just had about a twenty minute conversation with me. I remembered how he said my name, and I was a little startled to realize how much I liked it. Not only in the way he said my name but how much I liked him in general. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something about him seemed very familiar. Almost as if we had met before.

I had returned to browsing the books, although the titles and authors were a blur as I kept replaying the entire conversation we had in my head. It wasn't until I was a few more aisles down when I realized that I had never told Bruce to call me Evie, I had only told him my name was Evelyn.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After my interesting meeting with Bruce Wayne, I had picked up a few more books from in the store and headed home. It was already about six and I had nothing else planned for the night.

After sitting on my couch for an hour, I was bored of my apartment and decided I needed a change in scenery. I immediately thought of heading towards the Watch Tower and help whoever was on monitor duty for the night. I changed into my gear and sent a message out waiting for someone to pick me up and get me to the station.

Unfortunately, Green Lantern was the one to receive my call and escort me back to the tower. The trip up was quiet, as neither one of us said anything to each other. We both weren't at each other's throats like we were when we first me, but we also weren't friends either. It seemed we had a mutual respect for each other and that was as far as our relationship went.

I walked into the monitor room and saw that Batman was the unlucky soul on monitor duty tonight. I walked over and sat in the chair next to him. "Hey," I said softly, not wanting to disturb the silence in the room.

He looked at me and looked back at the monitors. "I thought it was your day off," He said.

"It was. I took the day off and I came back for a night shift," I said, pulling out my copy of The Princess Diary and setting it on my lap. Bats only looked at me and I knew he didn't like my answer very much.

"Evie." Was all he needed to say.

"What?" I asked. "I'm too bored at home. All I do is sit around."

Bats only shook his head but I could see the ghost of a smirk on his face. "You'll never guess who I met today though," I said, not quite knowing why I was making small talk with Batman.

He only quirked his eyebrow up and I took that as him asking me who it was I had met.

"Today, I met Mr. Bruce Wayne." I said, turning to the page of my book my bookmark was in.

"Oh really?" Bats asked. "And what was he like?"

"He was nice," I said, looking up from my book. "He seems damaged though." I said. Bats had stiffened a little bit next to me but I didn't pay any attention to it. "It seems like he is so used to people talking to him only because of what his last name is, and not because of who he is as a person." I said, thinking back to what he had said earlier. "I think I'm going to befriend him. That way he knows he has at least one actual friend."

A small chuckle came from Bats and I looked at him. "Knowing you Evie, you probably found a way to worm yourself into his heart already."

I was a little shocked at Bats openly being so…well sensitive right now. Usually he would just be ignoring me at this point. I shook it off as him just being in a good mood and thought to what he just said.

I remembered Bruce saying he was already a fan of mine, and his little bits of flirting he had done with me. "Yeah, maybe I have." I mumbled to myself. Deciding that thinking about the different emotions of both Bats and Bruce was going to give me a headache, I dropped the subject all together and opened my book again and dove into the pages.

Hey guys! I know this chapter is a lot shorter than my other ones, but I just wanted it to be a filler chapter and not a long drawn out episode. The next episode on the list was War World and I wasn't a fan of it, and I couldn't think of how Evie would fit in well with the story. So instead I made this a small filler chapter.

So I moved back into college this week, which means that I may be getting a little busier and I won't be able to update on a weekly basis. Have no fear! I still plan on continuing with the story, it just may take a little longer. I hope you guys enjoyed this one!

~S


	7. The Brave and the Bold

"Evie, you're still in Gotham, correct?" Diana asked me through my earpiece. I sat up in my chair and pushed the button to answer her.

"Yeah I'm down here," I said. "I was just about to leave to go back to the Watch Tower. Why?" Currently I was reading the newspaper, looking for any big events where a crime could take place. I was due to go up to the Tower for my monitor duties in about an hour.

"Good, stay down there. Green Lantern is heading to Central City, where there was a report of a stolen truck full of radioactive isotopes. Are you available to help him?" She asked.

"Sure, I can be there in 10 minutes," I said.

"Thanks Evie, it's much appreciated." Diana said.

"Yeah, sure," I said while tying the laces on my boots. There was a click on the other end, signaling she hung up. I threw my coffee mug into the sink and ran out to my fire escape and climbed up to the roof. From there I jumped onto my ice disc and flew towards Central.

Within ten minutes I was in the city's limits. I pressed my ear to activate my communicator. "Hey G.L, you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Head towards the bridge. It looks like Flash is chasing the stolen truck now," Green Lantern said.

"I'm on my way." I flew as fast as I could to get to the bridge, and just as I came up on it I saw the truck Flash was chasing drive over the edge. In a blur of red Flash had gotten in the truck and saved the two men from going into the water. I was about to try and stop the truck from hitting the water but G.L beat me to it.

"Lose something?" he asked, levitating the truck using his ring.

"I was handling it," Flash said, seeming a little offended that we had to step in and help him.

Green Lantern and I both looked over at the rest of the bridge and the small fire that was leaving a trail of smoke in the sky.

"So I see." Green Lantern said.

"What are you guys doing here?" Flash asked us.

"G.L is responding to a police call and I'm his back up," I said, floating down to stand next to Flash on the bridge.

Green Lantern followed and set the truck back onto a stable section of the bridge.

"Someone hijacked a load of radioactive isotopes." We opened the back of the van doors and saw containers that had the radioactive isotopes in radiation containers. Yikes, imagine what trouble they can cause if these things had gotten away.

"No wonder these guys were in such a hurry," Flash said picking up the two drivers by their collars. The man in the glasses started to stir, and he opened his eyes and seemed very confused as to where he was.

He blinked a few times and he let out a groan. "Oh…where am I?" He asked, rubbing his eyes, almost as if he had a headache. The other man Flash was holding stirred and woke up as well.

"You hijacked a truck and drove it off a bridge," Flash said setting the men down on their feet. "Any of this ringing a bell?" He asked, getting in the face of the dark haired man in glasses.

"What?" the man asked, sounding utterly confused. He looked around as if he would be able to find the answers written somewhere on the bridge. My gut was telling me that this man really had no idea what we were talking about.

"Before we start accusing them of anything, why don't we figure out who they are first?" I said, stepping forward, trying to relieve some of the tension that was mounting.

"Let's see some I.D," Green Lantern said. Using his ring he took the men's wallets from inside their jacket pockets. "Professor Arthur Chin and Dr. Mark Stevens," he read. "Both work at the River Bluffs Research Center where the isotopes were stolen from."

I raised my eyebrows, now I definitely knew they really didn't know what they were doing. I couldn't see these two respectable men who worked at such a high end research facility all of a sudden become truck hijackers. Just glancing over them I could tell they seemed genuinely scared.

"Man, and I feel guilty when I take paper clips from the watchtower," Flash said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"That's you? I can never find any when I need them," I said.

"Can you focus?" G.L glared at us. "Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this." We decided to call an ambulance to take the doctor and the professor to the hospital so they could be checked out and make sure there are no internal injuries that need to be taken care of. Once the ambulance left and workers started cleaning up the bridge, G.L put us in a green bubble and we made our way over to the research center.

The center sat alone on a cliff, facing the ocean. I thought it was a really nice and peaceful spot, that is, until I walked into the facility itself. The inside of the building was all painted steel grey, with no decorations or anything to make the office look nice. Once we were led to the actual laboratory the building became really unpleasant. The entire place was full of stainless steel counters that reflected off the harsh fluorescent lights, and the walls were lined with different cages filled with monkeys, some ranging from tiny ones that could fit in your palms to a giant gorilla, who sat sitting in his cage listening, as if he could understand us.

The scientist we were meeting was Dr. Sarah Corwin. She worked with both the professor and the doctor, but quite frankly, I didn't trust much of what she had to say. Her entire appearance was cold, she had bright blue eyes that were framed by dark rimmed glasses and dark hair that was pulled back in such a tight bun I though her forehead was going to tear into two. She wore a simple lab coat over a tight black dress.

"I'm sorry. I can't explain their behavior," Dr. Corwin said after we asked her what she knew about the professor and the doctor. "They're both highly respected experts in their fields," She continued saying.

"They certainly don't fit the profile of armed robbers," G.L said as he looked over their files. It sounded like he didn't believe what Dr. Corwin was saying, and quite frankly neither did I.

"To be fair, they've been under enormous pressure to finish their current project," Dr. Corwin said. "It's possible they simply snapped under the strain." I quirked an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest, having a bit of a hard time believing what this girl was saying. "I wish I could help you, but frankly this whole things seems…so preposterous."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Flash walk over the cages to look at the monkeys.

"What exactly is their project on?" I asked. If these two guys, who had perfectly clean records, would resort to armed robbery as a way to deal with their stress then this project better be really important.

"That's classified information," Dr. Corwin said, grabbing the file out of Green Lantern's hands. I narrowed my eyes and glared at her.

Behind Dr. Corwin, flash walked over to one of the bigger cages where a fully grown gorilla was sitting. "Want one?" He asked the gorilla, offering him a banana that God knows where he got it from.

The Doctor turned around and saw Flash offering the gorilla a banana and her cheeks flushed a deep red. She stalked over and snatched the banana out of his hand, and pointed at a sign on the wall that said 'Do not feed the lab animals.'

Corwin seemed to compose herself. "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do." And with that, she turned around and walked out of the lab.

"She seems a bit suspicious, or is that just me?" I asked. Flash only shrugged his shoulders and we all turned and walked out the door.

"Are you staying with us Evie?" Green Lantern asked.

"Sure, I have nothing else to do today. Besides, I'm intrigued." I said, stepping outside and squinting my eyes from the sudden sun.

"Yeah, Evie wouldn't leave her favorite people behind, would she?" Flash said, throwing his arm over my shoulders. I rolled my eyes at his antics, and kept walking away from the facility.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After going to the lab we went back to Central City, looking for more leads in the investigation. That is, we would be investigating, if someone didn't get hungry. The second the three of us walked into the park, he got a whiff from a hot dog cart, and that was the end of that. He ran over to the cart, practically dragging me and G.L with him.

"We're supposed to be conducting an investigation." Green Lantern said, crossing his arms and looking very grouchy.

"Can I help it if I have a hyper accelerated metabolism?" Flash asked. "Besides, it's just a little snack," He said lifting up his entire armful of food.

"He has a point, Green bean," I said, nibbling on my own hot dog. Green Lantern only rolled his eyes and became even grouchier.

I looked up from my hot dog when I heard sirens in the distance and they were coming closer. "Uh-oh," I said, shoving the rest of my food into my mouth.

"Now what?!" Green Lantern said, obviously not liking another distraction. Suddenly, people started running from the direction the police car was going.

More and more people started running by us and we could hear part of what they were saying. "There's a gorilla on the loose!" One blonde man yelled.

"Did he just say gorilla?" I asked, not quite believing what I was hearing.

"I'm on it," Flash said, throwing all of his food at Green Lantern.

"Wait, I'll go…" Green Lantern started saying but Flash had already taken off.

"…with you." He finished. I looked at him, already jumping on an ice board.

"No worries Greenie, I'll help him." I said. I flew as fast as I could to try and catch up with him, but the speedster was too fast. I only was able to catch up to him when he stopped at the park and changed direction. I decided to follow the officers, incase anything serious happened and they needed help. The officers were wearing patrol gear and their swat gear.

It looked like they were chasing after something silver, but it moved too quickly for me to get a better look at it. By the time I flew around all the officers the silver thing was gone and all I could hear was the screeching of tires. I went over to the street and saw a man sitting on the ground.

"Sir, what happened?" I asked him, hovering a few feet above the pavement.

"I don't know, but something pulled me out of my car, it looked like a gorilla," He said, rubbing his head. Okay, he must have hit his head because as far as I know, gorillas can't drive cars.

I decided to follow the direction his car went anyway. After a few seconds of flying and dodging lampposts as fast as I could, I caught up with Flash, who was chasing a car…with a gorilla driving.

"Are you seeing this?" I yelled at him, trying to make my voice carry over the wind whipping in my face. Flash grabbed a rake and sped up, throwing the rake in front of the car, wrecking the tires. The car sped out of control and crashed against a dumpster and landed on its side.

I jumped off my disc and stood next to Flash. The gorilla leaned out of the car and landed on the ground.

"Easy, boy," Flash said, walking over and tried helping the gorilla and making sure I wasn't hurt. "We'll have you back behind monkey bars before you know it."

"Uhh, Flash, are you sure we should be going near him? He could, ya know, rip our faces off." I said, standing a few feet behind him.

Flash only shot me a look before putting his hands on the gorillas arm.

The gorilla rolled around and said, "Get your stinking paws off me you filthy human." That's right. The gorilla said that. Said! As in, speaking plain English. Flash and I both jumped back a few feet.

"Say what?!" Flash exclaimed.

"Did you slip something into my hot dog? Cause if not I may have hit my head on something," I said, staring wide eyed at the silver gorilla.

As we were standing there, there was a soft shooting noise and seconds later, electricity enveloped me and my body felt like it burst into flames. The pain was absolutely unbelievable, it felt like my body was on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. All I could do was scream, I couldn't move or feel anything other than the white hot pain.

I don't know how long the pain lasted, but it felt like forever. I remembered the day I got my powers, and the pain I felt when the chemical machine exploded. Then I saw myself, but it was like looking at myself from outside my body. I could see everything happening to me, but it wasn't me. I was walking along a hallway, but I was slowly melting onto the floor until I was a big puddle.

Suddenly I was in Gotham, flying around the city, when my body couldn't move. I was just stuck to my ice, until it started melting and I fell through. I was falling and falling until I saw a bright light at the bottom. As I fell through the light I landed on the ground and tried picking myself up, but I kept slipping.

I looked down at my hands and realized that I was see through, and cold. I was made of ice. I was finally able to stand up on my feet, and I was trying to think of what I could do next. I heard a noise, getting louder as it approached me. I looked up and saw that it was one of Batman's batarangs, and it was heading straight for my chest.

I tried to move but I couldn't, and the second the batarang hit me, I broke, shattering into a million ice shards.

I opened my eyes to see a bright white light right above me. I groaned and blinked, trying to make my eyes used to the light. Suddenly a face was over mine. "Hey, wake up," the man said. I looked at him, but only for a few moments as my head seemed to pound the longer I kept my eyes opened.

The man looked fairly old, probably around his late 50's. He had a neatly trimmed mustache and haircut that was a beautiful silver. He had piercing eyes that seemed to look right through you.

"C'mon, you're in my spot." He said. I sat up and looked around me, not recognizing where I was. I saw red out of the corner of my eye and saw Flash, he looked like he was slowly coming too.

As I looked around, I noticed more men were in the room with me, all wearing ratty clothes, and not looking like very nice people.

"Where am I?" Flash asked. He walked over to me and helped me up.

"I have no idea," I said, holding my head. There was a loud clanging noise and we looked at the front of the room, where there were metal bars.

"Flash, where the hell are we?"

On the other side of the bars were two men, one in uniform and the other a man wearing black pants, a tie, and a white dress shirt.

"You Justice League hotshots think you can do whatever you want," said the man, putting his hands on his hips and looking angry, quite angry. "Not in my city."

The officer stepped forward and put handcuffs on Flash and I.

"Hey!" I yelled. Flash tried protesting but he was cut off by, who I assumed, was a detective.

"Let's go, red. You too frosty."

Frosty? I thought, how rude.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." He said. I was walking next to Flash and at this point I was seriously freaked out.

"Flash, what happened? All I remember was chasing the car with the gorilla in it," I whispered.

"I don't know, Evie. It'll all be okay. I'm sure," He said, being quite serious. That freaked me out the most, Flash being serious.

We were both taken to an interrogation room, where another man in a suit stood in the middle of the room, next to a table that had a really old t.v. on it.

"Sit!" The first detective said, pushing us into the two chairs at the table.

"Hey, easy. What did we do?" Flash yelled. The uneasy feeling in my stomach grew when the two men walked over to the t.v. and put in a VCR tape.

"This is a surveillance tape from the police impound," said the first detective. The screen flashed on and showed a surveillance feed of the truck that we stopped earlier that day. The back of the truck was open and the rest of the radioactive isotopes were still in the back. "See that stuff?" The detective said, pointing at the yellow barrels. "The isotopes from the robbery you two and Green Lantern broke up? Watch."

Flash and I sat there, looking at the screen. A few seconds passed and I noticed something different on the screen. Two barrels of the isotopes were gone.

"I don't understand," Flash said. The detective walked over and leaned between Flash and I.

"Too quick for you? Let's try the freeze frame." He said, rewinding the tape and pressing play again, this time in slow motion. The video showed Flash carrying one barrel of the isotopes…and I was flying next to him, carrying another one.

My heart quickened as I looked at the screen. What were we doing? I don't remember going back to the truck, let alone stealing the barrels.

"Recognize anybody?" He asked us. I glanced over to Flash and saw that he had the same look of disbelief on his face.

The detective walked over to the other side of the table and sat down. "Why'd you steal the barrels?"

"We didn't!" I exclaimed. "I mean, those are our bodies but we didn't know what we were doing."

The detective raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you stole the barrels without knowing what you were doing?"

I wanted to face palm myself. "No, you're just twisting what we're saying."

The detective continued to glare at me some more, then he looked over at Flash. "Let's go over this again," He said.

"There's nothing to go over. We're innocent," Flash said, sounding even more frustrated than I was.

"So that's not you on the tape?" The detective asked.

"No. I-I mean, yes," Flash said, not quite sure how to explain what was on the tape. "I mean, I don't remember!"

"Where did you stash the isotopes?" The detective asked us yet again. It was pretty obvious he didn't believe us. I mean, why should he? We have only saved the world countless times, why wouldn't he treat us like criminals?

The blonde detective stepped forward, finally speaking up. "Just tell us your side. I'm sure the DA will understand. After all, you're a hero after all."

"Was a hero," the other detective said. "Forget his statement. We've got the tape."

"He's right. If you want to help yourself out, you got to do it now." The blonde detective said, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup. Okay, now I'm done.

"Would you two quit the good cop, bad cop routine? If you're going to charge us with anything you would have by now. Just because you have the tape doesn't mean anything. I'd rather sit in jail then confess to something I wasn't responsible for, so you can take your tape and shove it." Flash stared at me, shocked by my outburst. Oops.

The detective across from me looked even meaner than he did before. I may have stepped over the line, just a little bit.

"I can't think," Flash said, thankfully breaking the shocked silence that had enveloped the room. "I'm tired, and hungry." He held his hands up to his face, almost like he had a headache.

"Maybe some coffee will help. How do you take it?" He asked, holding a mug of steaming, probably crappy, coffee.

"Cream and thirty seven sugars," Flash said, turning around to look at the blonde detective. I rolled my eyes.

When the detective turned around, obviously thinking he was joking, Flash said "No, really."

Suddenly the door opened and someone said the greatest sentence I had ever heard. "Put it in a paper cup. He'll be taking it to go." Dramatic and poetic? No. But it was still amazing to hear anyway.

Green Lantern walked into the room, holding a file in his hand. He threw the file on the table and the grouchy detective picked it up. "You actually posted bail for these lowlifes?" He incredulously asked.

"Hey!" I said. Excuse me, but I am not a lowlife.

"If they were really guilty do you think you could have held him here with a pair of handcuffs?" Green Lantern asked.

I smirked and took some moisture out of the air and used it to make water and put it over the handcuffs. Then I froze it and pulled my hands apart, the freezing cold easily snapping the metal.

Flash had already gotten his off and was twirling it around his fingers. Green Lantern led the way and we walked out of the department. I was pretty quiet, since I could sense that Lantern wasn't happy.

Once we walked outside, Flash was the first to speak. "Thanks for sticking up for us in there." *SMACK*

"Ow!" Flash said, rubbing the back of his head after Lantern slapped him.

"What were you thinking?" He yelled at him.

"I wasn't thinking anything," Flash yelled back. I just stayed where I was on the stairs and hoped that if I didn't move neither of them would notice me.

"Obviously," Lantern said as he started walking down the street.

I followed a fairly safe distance behind them, close enough where I could hear them but far enough I wouldn't be in range of a head slap.

"Look, if we wanted the third degree, we would have stayed in there."

Oh no, don't drag me into this argument.

"Like we told 'em, we don't remember." Flash continued. I decided now was the time for me to speak up.

"Alright, let's start with the last thing you do remember," Lantern said, continuing his fast paced walk.

"Look G.L, the last thing I actually remember is seeing you in the park and then flying off. Everything after that was just a weird acid trip." I said, remembering the visions I saw before I woke up.

"Yeah…after we caught the gorilla it told me that…" Flash said but he was cut off by Lantern.

"The gorilla talked to you?" Boy, did Lantern look at us like we were crazy.

"Yeah, it did!" I said, coming to Flash's aid. "It called us filthy humans. I mean, for a talking gorilla he was kind of rude."

Flash glanced at me and was trying to fight a smile. "She's right. It talked right after we stopped his car."

We had stopped walking and Lantern was full on glaring at us. "And I'm supposed to believe this?"

"Hey, we all got a Martian's phone number on our speed dial," Flash said.

"Yeah, we should get a benefit of the doubt here," I said. Lantern must have realized we were right, albeit he still looked a little skeptical.

"Let's check it out. Together this time." Lantern powered up his ring and flew behind Flash, who had already whisked away.

"Hey!" I called. I jumped on my ice disc and flew after them.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The three of us went back to the park where the original call came in, where the gorilla was on the loose. When we got there we saw there were still police in the area, apparently the gorilla wasn't caught.

"Looks like he's still at large," Flash said, once he stopped running.

"Or maybe he made like a banana…and split." I said.

Flash chuckled and we followed behind Lantern, who was using his ring to look for any clues about where the gorilla had gone to. Flash went looking in the bushes and I went on the other side of the sidewalk, looking for footprints or fur of any kind.

"Wait. I've got something," Lantern said. We walked over to him and saw that his ring was illuminating a giant footprint, of what I assumed, was made by a gorilla. He raised his ring and his beam of light followed a trail of gorilla prints.

"Of course the prints would lead to a dark tunnel. Why wouldn't they lead to, oh I don't know, somewhere bright and cheerful?" I grumbled. We all walked towards the tunnel and Lantern lit it up with light.

Standing in front of us was a silver gorilla standing on its legs. He was so tall that his head was practically scraping the ceiling. Did I mention that he didn't look happy to see us?

He let out an enormous roar that shook the tunnel and he started beating on his chest. "Oh no," I squeaked. Suddenly Green Lantern used his ring to zap the gorilla back, and sent him tumbling out of the cave. He sat up and instead of fighting back, he just sat on the ground.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked.

"I don't know, was scaring us really necessary?" I muttered. I followed Flash and Lantern as they walked out of the tunnel and closer to the gorilla.

"Okay, so he can talk." Duh, Lantern. That's what we've been trying to tell you. "Who are you?" He asked.

The gorilla stood up and walked over to us. "My name is Solovar," He said. "I'm chief of security for Gorilla City."

"Gorilla City?" Flash asked him, disbelief written all over his face. "You have got to be kidding."

"I assure you this is no laughing matter." Solovar said.

"Go on." Lantern told him.

"Safely hidden from humanity, we apes have lived in peace for thousands of years," Solovar said, looking up at the moon. "Until the black day when a power-mad genius named Grodd tried to conquer our city with advanced mind control technology." Well, that explains the doctor and professor from earlier, along with Flash and I, I thought. "We were able to thwart his evil plot but we couldn't prevent his escape. It wasn't until later that we discovered he had also stolen our city's security plans. Grodd has sworn terrible revenge on all who reside in Gorilla City."

Great, a power hungry gorilla wants to destroy a city full of other super smart gorillas. Why exactly are we being involved in it?

"So that's why you're here?" Flash asked him.

"Yes," Solovar growled. "To stop him from carrying out his threats."

"If it's true he has a mind control device that could explain the isotope thefts, and your memory loss," Lantern said, looking between me and Flash.

"He needs those isotopes to power his devices," explained Solovar.

"Alright, so where is Grodd?" I asked. Solovar stepped away and towards a bush behind him. Well, I thought it was a bush. As soon as he came closer to it, the bush disappeared and a bike took its place. Well, not just any bike, but a super fool futuristic bike.

"My investigation showed that Grodd had been carrying on an e-mail correspondence with a local scientist, Dr. Sarah Corwin." Solovar said, handing Green Lantern some papers out of a gold case.

"I knew there was something weird about that lady." Flash said.

"I hate to say it, but I totally told ya so." I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. I didn't like her from the start, and now I have actual reason not to like her.

"We better call the others." Lantern said.

"Why?" Flash asked. "You think we can't handle one dumb old gorilla, no offense." He said turning to Solovar. "It'll be a piece of cake." I actually face palmed my head.

"Could you not insult the bad gorilla in front of another gorilla?" I asked him, elbowing him in his ribs. "I would like my arms to remain in their sockets." I turned to Solovar, "No offense."

And, for the second time that day Flash ran off, leaving the rest of us in the dust. I learned my lesson for the day, I stayed behind with Lantern.

"He's very fast." Solovar said.

"Yeah," Lantern said, obviously sounding displeased. "What were you gonna say?"

Solovar picked something up from the gold container in his hands. "These headbands will protect us from Grodd's ray." He held up a thin silver band that had a circuit board on the inside of it.

"Do you happen to have one in black?" I asked. The gorilla only looked at me and I scrunched my nose a bit. "Alright, silver it is." I took the band and out it on my head but under my ponytail. I felt a bit ridiculous.

"We'd better catch the kid before he gets into any more trouble." Lantern said, putting his headband on.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Solovar told us that he believed Grodd was back in Dr. Corwin's lab, so that's where we headed. We got to the building we assumed Flash had already gotten there. Lantern flew up to a window to see if he could see anything. "Great, Flash is out cold and Grodd is in there with Corwin." He called down to us.

I pulled my staff off my hip and extended it. "Hey G.L, you got the wall?" I called up to him. He floated down and nodded. Using his ring he blasted a giant hole in the wall and we all stepped through.

"Don't move, Grodd." Solovar said, holding up a gun. I winced a little bit at that, I really hate guns.

The black gorilla stood up to his full height, and I saw he was wearing a gold helmet on his head. "Solovar, you're a fool to come here." He said.

"You can't control us while we're wearing these." Solovar said, gesturing to the headbands.

I looked over at Flash and saw he wasn't wearing a band. Oh, no. Please don't let Grodd notice, please don't let Grodd notice, I chanted in my head.

"Actually, I wasn't thinking of controlling you," He said. Oh great, he noticed. The red button on Grodd's helmet glowed red, and Flash sat up, wearing an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. "Destroy them."

Flash immediately went over to Solovar and quickly threw a punch, strong enough to knock the gorilla down.

I jumped on an ice disc and rose up to the ceiling, trying to get out of the way and think of a way to stop Flash. Lantern used a force field to prevent Flash from hitting him, but Flash only bounced back and grabbed the gun that Solovar had dropped.

"Flash, snap out of it!" Lantern yelled. Flash must have noticed me because he shot up towards me, hitting my board and shattering the ice. I started to fall, but I was quick enough to grab onto the ceiling beam. I swung myself up and crouched on it, trying to protect myself from the blasts.

Flash was distracted from me and turned his attention to Lantern. I looked over and saw that Grodd and Dr. Corwin were escaping. I made another disc and flew down and chased after them. They got to the door, but I froze it shut.

"Hey monkey breath! Don't move." I yelled. Grodd turned to me and looked furious. "Oh, I wasn't talking to you." I said, and looked over at Corwin, indicating I was talking about her. Grodd looked even more furious. He picked up a piece of concrete that had fallen during the fight and threw it at me. I put up and ice shield but the force was too much and it threw me back. When I sat up, Grodd and the doc had already left.

I walked back over to Lantern and saw him standing over Flash, who was out cold. "You guys okay?" I asked.

"I am, Flash…not so much." He said. I could already see a bruise forming on Flash's face. Ouch.

Solovar and Lantern ran through a door and I stayed behind with Flash, who started groaning and stirring a little bit. A few minutes later I heard a really loud buzzing coming from the other room of the lab. I stood up and walked towards it when I saw a bright yellow light coming.

I ran over and put Flash and I into a strong ice sphere, but the second the light touched it, it melted. The light hit us and it felt like a really weird prickling sensation, almost like my entire body had fallen asleep and I had pins and needles everywhere. As quickly as the light came, it vanished and I collapsed on the floor.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I woke up, with yet again, another small headache. I groaned and rolled over on my back to see G.L and Solovar standing there.

"Good, you're awake." G.L said, lending a hand to help me up. I took it and he hauled me off the ground.

"Geez, what happened?" I asked, rubbing my temples.

"We don't know."

"Well that's comforting," I snapped. Lantern only gave me a look. "Sorry."

Flash was laying a few feet next to me, groaning.

"The mind control, is he still…" Lantern started to ask Solovar.

"No. This should protect him." He said, walking over to Flash putting a band around his head.

Within seconds Flash sat up, now wide awake. "Who? What? Where?" He spluttered, trying to get a grip on his surroundings. We all looked down at him, hoping he would remember what happened. "Oh, man, not again." Flash said, rubbing his head. "What did I miss?" He muttered.

G.L only put out his hand and helped pull Flash off the ground. "That dumb, old gorilla got away." G.L said, referring back to what Flash called Grodd only an hour before.

"Go ahead, rub it in." I looked at Flash, then back at Green Lantern.

"There isn't anything to rub in. It could have happened to any of us. No hard feelings, right G.L?" I said, giving him a pointed look. He only sighed and shook his head.

"This time, we're getting some backup." He said. He reached up to his comm and called the Watchtower. "Green Lantern to Watchtower. Watchtower, come in." He waited a few seconds to see if he got a response. "My comm link's off line."

Flash and I both reached up to check ours, and lo and behold, mine only gave a small static noise, and nothing else could be heard. "Same here." I said.

"And for good reason." Solovar said, walking over to the opening in the wall. We all followed him and saw the city was still there, but there was a haze in the sky. It was moving, and I assumed it was a shield or something.

"Man, what is that?" Flash asked the silver gorilla.

"It's just like the shield that protects my city." Solovar said. "Nothing can get in…"

"Or out." I said, finishing his sentence. Great, now we have no way to contact the team and let them know where we are.

"Unless I can shut down the generator." Green Lantern said. We all raced into the back room where the light came from and saw the generator was still running. It was a giant ball of light that was being held in the air. Lantern held up his hand and used his ring to try and penetrate the light, which would cause the shield to go down.

His green light only hit a shield surrounding the generator and created a bright light, but it didn't do anything more than that.

"Not even a scratch." Flash said.

"Gorilla technology is highly advanced." Solovar said.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said, still in awe over the generator.

"Come, let's find Grodd." Solovar said, leading us out of the room.

"Are we sure we want to go back and find the crazy, super smart, mind controlling gorilla?" I asked. And as usual, I didn't get an answer. "Right, good plan everyone."

"Oh relax Evie, we can handle him again." Flash said.

"Again? We didn't handle him a first time." I said. He thought about it for a second before accepting that I was right. We walked out of the building and into the rest of the city. Except it didn't feel much like a city. It was dead quiet, with not a single person out walking, well, except for the four of us.

"Weird, am I the only one creeped out here?" Flash asked, sensing that the city was too quiet. "Where is everyone?"

"Nope, I don't like it either." I said.

"Perhaps the shield frightened them." Solovar said.

"Could be, but usually when a city looks this empty flesh-eating zombies are involved." Flash said.

"Seriously? You just had to say that? I swear to God, Flash, if I see a zombie I'm whooping your butt." I said, taking out my staff.

"You two watch too many movies." Lantern grumbled.

"Shh! Listen." Solovar said, sticking his arm out so we stopped walking. We could hear voices, lots of voices. And they didn't sound too happy.

"Well, the apocalypse has started…I call Batman on my team." I said. Lantern rolled his eyes and Flash chuckled. We hurried closer to the sound and saw a giant mob gathered in the amphitheater, staring at a screen that had a live feed of Grodd on it.

Grodd raised his arms above his head and the crowd did the same, screaming and cheering for him. "We're too late. They're already under his control." Solovar said.

"Uh, how many of these headbands you got left?" Flash asked him.

"Two." He said, simply.

"That's not gonna be enough." Flash said, eyeing the mob up. We pushed our way through the crowd up towards the front. Grodd silenced the crowd and began to speak.

"People of Central City, the age of hairless simple-minded humanity is over. Today, a new age dawns. Today, Grodd rules." He finished and the crowd erupted around us.

"Guys, we have to figure out a way to snap them out of this." I said, hoping that no one would realize we weren't cheering.

"Humans are slow, ugly, immoral, and have an unpleasant body odor."

"Hey! Who are you calling slow?" Someone yelled from the crowd. It took me a second to realize that that someone was Flash.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him as the people around us became silent and looked at us.

"Flash, don't heckle the supervillain." Lantern scolded.

"We don't have to listen to this."

"Humans are inferior creatures," Grodd continued, thankfully he hadn't heard Flash. "fit only to serve at my whim. But after Gorilla City falls, you will be the paving the stones on which I will build my new empire!"

"Hey, monkey boy, why don't you go climb a skyscraper?" Flash yelled, even louder than before. Great.

Grodd must have finally noticed us. "Intruders! Destroy them!"

We all made a circle and had our backs towards one another. "Couldn't keep your big mouth shut, could you?" Lantern asked him.

The people just kept coming closer and closer, and I didn't know what to do. Yeah, they were trying to destroy us, but they still were civilians. I can't just go and punch them in the face.

"We need some breathing room." G.L flew up and created a trench around us, forcing the people in the mob to slow down in order to get to us. "Make yourselves scarce, I'm going after Grodd." He said and flew up into the sky.

People started climbing the trench, and they were doing it pretty quickly. "We need to do something." I gathered some water from my staff and coated the inside of the trench with it, then froze it, making a solid sheet of ice. One man started slipping down the ice, and they were having trouble getting a good grip.

Suddenly, two girls that Flash knew (I don't even want to know how) started throwing rocks at us. I put up some ice to deflect them off of me and started making ice in the trench thicker, so it would be harder to climb up.

Suddenly an explosion went off above us and we saw guards aiming missiles at G.L. "Would you excuse me?" Flash said, leaving me and Solovar on the mound surrounded by a mob. We kept trying to keep the mob away without using too much force, but it became too much.

"Flash is coming back, you stay here and I'll go with Lantern." I told Solovar. Before he could respond I was already on an ice disc and flying up. I flew next to G.L and he was frantically looking around. "What's wrong?"

"Grodd got away. We need to meet up with the others." Lantern said, sounding disappointed. Lantern used his ring to follow Flash and Solovar's trail and we found them in an alleyway a few blocks away from the mob.

"Grodd got away again." Lantern said, interrupting the conversation Flash and Solovar were having. "But if he used his rocket bike, my ring can follow his trail."

"I've gotta get me one of those." Flash said.

"What would you need a bike for? You're already fast. If anything, the bike would slow you down." I asked, putting my staff away and making step back onto an ice disk.

"Yeah…but I would look cool. Besides, chicks dig guys on bikes." Of course. Flash is thinking about how attractive he would be. What else is new?

Lantern used his ring to follow the trail of Grodd and the rest of us followed behind him. We had travelled a few miles before I recognized where we were at. "Isn't this near the military base?" I asked.

"Yeah, and the trail is heading directly towards it." Lantern said.

"Great, a crazy monkey with a genius level IQ and mind control technology went to a military base where they store military grade weapons. Could this day get any better?" I said.

"Yeah, we could have zombies." Flash added to my little rant.

"Enough you two." Lantern said, landing next to Grodd's motor bike. Well, looks like we are finally here. "He must be inside."

"Okay, so what's the plan-" I started to ask, but a movement out of the corner of my eye stopped me. The guard came out, and pointed gun at us.

"Stop, in the name of Grodd." He yelled before shooting at us.

"I thought the saying was 'Stop in the name of love'." I yelled over the shots. Solovar jumped over to the soldier and knocked him out with one swing. If only I could do that, my days would be ten times easier.

"Hurry, before Grodd finds out we're here." Solovar called back to us, before he broke the barrier. Suddenly a loud alarm started blaring, and I thought it was the intruder alarm going off.

"Something tells me they already know we're here." Flash said. I started to agree, until I actually listened to the alarm carefully. Wait, I know that sound. I could feel the color draining from my face as I realized what the sound was.

"No, that's a launch alert." G.L said, confirming my fear. I don't know how I could forget about that noise, I used to hear them all the time when I was in the military.

Suddenly four missiles were blasted off from their launch pads and shot into the air. "Guys, those are nukes." I said, immediately recognizing the shape and designs of them. I looked at Lantern and a mutual understanding was passed between us.

"Evie and I will go after the missiles. You stop Grodd!" Lantern yelled, already soaring towards the missiles. I jumped on a disk and shot after him.

"G.L, we have to get the control out from the middle of the rocket, it's the only way not to set it off!" I called to him, trying to make my voice heard over the rushing of the wind past my ears. We each caught up to one of the rockets and went on either side of it.

Lantern used his ring to cut a square right where the detonator was, and I used my water to slash through the wires, rendering the missile useless, just before it caught fire in the air and flew down to the ocean. Well, one down, three to go, I thought.

We caught up to the second one and did the same thing, taking out the control box and exploding the rocket before it hit land. We looked back at the rocket just in time to see it explode, but a piece of metal flew off in hit G.L right in the face, rendering him unconscious and sending him straight to the ground.

"Lantern!" I screamed. I glanced up at the other two rockets, but decided I needed to save G.L before he became a green pancake. I surfed through the air as fast as I could, trying to get to him but he was too fast. I gathered my water from my staff and sent it around him, creating a platform of ice for him to fall onto. He woke up right as he hit it.

"Are you okay?" I asked, making sure he didn't break anything in the fall down.  
"Let's just go." He said, taking off at super speed. I followed him, going faster than I ever had before.

"NO. I'm too late!" Lantern said, seeing the missiles almost make it to the city. I thought for a second, before thinking of something really stupid.

"Make a slingshot and throw me." I said.

"What?" He asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Just do it!" I yelled, seeing the missiles get closer to the city. Lantern actually listened to me, and he made a giant slingshot out of his ring energy and put me in it.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Nope." This is the dumbest thing I have ever done, but there is no way we would make it there in time just by flying. I've always wondered how fast a bullet traveled, and I think I just found out. I flew through the air, catching up to the missile in seconds.

As I entered the airspace around the town I saw that J'onn had already taken out the detonator in one missile, and Diana was trying to stop the other half of a missile that Hawkgirl had broken in half. I may not like her, but I knew it was the right thing to help her.

I flew down and grabbed the back of the missile while Diana was trying to push the front. I used all the water I had around me and froze it to the edges of the missile and pulled the ice up. I couldn't tell if it was helping or not, but I had to at least try something.

We were heading to the ground, after crashing through a couple buildings. I was pulling with all my might and I kept putting more ice and water around it, pulling every molecule up and trying to relieve the force.

I felt the missile hit the ground, with Diana holding the front of it. Which was great, except that meant the back flew up…and hit me in the face. The edge came up and cracked me in the forehead. I lost concentration and my ice melted, which meant that all the pull from the back end was lost. The missile came apart and the back end was thrown up, and since I was still holding onto the edge, I was catapulted through the air, and landed on the ground.

As if that wasn't enough the entire piece of missile rolled right over top of me. It was completely dark and my ears were ringing. I tried lifting the metal off me but I was in no way strong enough. That seemed more like a Superman worthy job. I thought I could hear yelling, but my ears felt like they were clogged with cotton, it was all muffled.

There was a loud groan coming from the metal moving and there was a sliver of light. I reached my hand over to the edge of the missile where the light was coming from and felt someone grab my hand. Still disoriented from hitting my head I tried to crawl my way over but my legs were stuck. Suddenly a green light enveloped the missile and the hand that had grabbed me lifted underneath my arm and dragged me out.

I blinked at the sudden bright light and felt someone grab my face. …Evie…you…alright?" I blinked some more and saw that the person holding onto me was Batman. "Evie! Are you alright?" He asked again and I winced at just how loud his voice was.

"Why are you talking so loud?" I asked. He only looked at me, but his hands were still on my face. "Bats?" I whispered.

"You have a concussion." He said, dropping his hands from my face and standing up. I tried standing up only to fall back down again. Bats bent over and picked me up bridal style. Normally I would be throwing a fit, but between my head feeling like it was going to explode and the bruises and cuts that littered my body, I didn't worry about it.

Bats suddenly looked up suddenly and put me down. "I need to go help Diana." He said, before rushing off. I looked towards the direction he headed and saw the other half of the missile lying on the ground with no Diana in sight.

Bats slid down and started digging near the missile and I realized why. Diana was crushed underneath of it. I somehow managed to stand up and walk over next to J'onn. "Diana?" I weakly asked.

J'onn walked over after a minute and laid a hand on Batman's shoulder, signaling that there was nothing he could do. I just stared, tears filling my eyes. Just cause I didn't like her, doesn't mean I wanted her to die. I mean, I should have done something more, I could have tried harder to stop the missile, I could have-

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of metal being lifted. I jerked my head up and saw Diana lifting the missile off of her and throwing it aside, with the detonator in hand. I let out a breath that I was holding and thanked whatever being there was that she was alright.

We all helped each other stand up on the ridge that was made by the missile and looked at the citizens of Gorilla City.

"The fates were kind today. Your city is safe." Diana told all of them. The gorillas al cheered as they learned their city was safe again. I was standing in between J'onn and Batman when I realized that I was starting to get a little dizzy. Not wanting to seem weak, I stood there, trying not to puke on all the happy gorillas.

I saw Diana shift and walk over to Batman and kiss him on the cheek after saying something to him. I would have laughed at his really red face, except I noticed the feeling inside of me. Now, I could blame this on the concussion, but when she kissed him I felt this burning in my stomach. Was I jealous? I mean, why should I be? We're all only friends. Right? Another wave of dizziness came over me and I couldn't take it anymore.

Sorry Bats, but I'm about to make you a little uncomfortable. I took a step sideways and put my head on his shoulder. I felt him immediately tense up at the close contact but I really didn't care. "What are you doing?" He asked, his voice sounding harsher than normal.

"I really don't feel good and the world is spinning, so just let this happen." I said, really quietly. His muscles relaxed a bit and he turned his body a bit so it wasn't so uncomfortable for me to lean on him.

"Evie, come on, we are going to one of the main buildings to talk with the, uh, silver gorilla…?" He trailed off, not quite sure what his name was.

"Oh, Solovar? He's nice." I said. I stood up straight and blinked a few more times.

"Are you good to walk?" Bats asked me.

"Yeah…I'm sure I'll be fine." I said, before taking a step and feeling no ground beneath my feet. Apparently in my concussed state, I didn't see the end of the trench right in front of me. Two hands grabbed my arms and pulled me back before I could fall on my ass, and probably concuss myself some more.

"Here." Bats said. He picked me up bridal style again and I started to protest before he stopped me. "Just let it happen Evie." I looked up at him for a second before shrugging and laying my head on his shoulder again. I had to hand it to the man, he was very comfortable.

We arrived at the building and walked in (or carried in) to see Flash, Solovar and another gorilla standing there waiting for us. "You can put me down now." I said. Bats gave me a look and he seemed a little reluctant to do so. "Seriously, I feel a bit better." He set me down gently and I wobbled a bit, but it was a definite improvement from the last time I tried to stand on my own feet.

"I'm sorry we misjudged you." The gorilla with the scar over his eye said to us. "We can never repay you for all you've done."

"No biggie." Flash said, taking most of the credit for himself. He deserved it though, after the day he had today. "What's gonna happen to Grodd?"

"I'll show you." Solovar said, leading us over to a cage on the side of the wall. "The feedback from his helmet completely wiped out his mind." Grodd was just sitting in the cage, holding a banana in one hand and pushing a tire swing with his other hand, a completely blank look on his face.

"I almost feel sorry for him." Lantern said. Yeah, I did too. I mean, sure he almost killed us but he just seemed so…empty now.

"You have my solemn word that he will receive the best of care." He turned and led us down the stairs and out the building.

I heard Flash and G.L talking in the back but my head was hurting too much to understand it. "Can we just go home now?" I mumbled.

Bats put a hand on my shoulder and led me towards his jet. "I'll take you back to the Watchtower now and get you fixed up."

"Don't you have to go back to Gotham?" I asked, gently sitting in the jet.

"It can wait until tomorrow night. You need to fix your head first."

We took off and I leaned my head against the window.

"Thanks, by the way." I said.

"For what?"

"Helping me after the missile landed."

He was quiet for a few minutes, and I thought he was just going to ignore me. "You really should be more careful. You're lucky you weren't killed." He said, and I was thankful he was keeping his voice quiet.

I continued looking out the window and I noticed we were seeing stars now. "Are we almost there? I'm tired." I hated how I sounded like a little kid, but my head was hurt and I was getting tired.

"Yeah, just hold on." He said, landing the jet. He helped me out of the jet and walked into the Watchtower. We were walking for a few minutes but I wasn't paying attention to where we were going. I just assumed we were going to the med bay.

"How are you feeling?" He asked me.

"A little better, why?" I asked looking at him.

"Just wanted to make sure you won't drown." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Whait…what?" I said and I looked around and realized that we were in the pool room. Then, the Bat pushed me in the pool. I landed with a splash and I sunk to the bottom. I immediately felt better and I watched my cuts and bruises heal. I popped up to the surface to see Bats standing above the pool, with an actual smile on his face. A smile, might I add, that looked very familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

"Much. My head still hurts but it isn't as bad, and I'm still tired." I said, climbing out of the pool. I took the water off me and threw it back into the pool.

"You should still sleep here tonight, just in case something happens. Someone will be here to help you."

He was probably right, but it still sucked I couldn't go home. "Yeah, you're right." I said, walking towards the bedrooms. I felt like a zombie. My eyes were half closed and I was stumbling around. I thought it was a little weird that Bats was still following me, but I didn't say anything other than a few mumbled words that he couldn't make out. He followed me into the room and I took off my jacket and my boots, and sat on my bed.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked me again.

"I'm fine Batsy. Be careful, you ask too many questions people will think you actually aren't that scary." I teased. He smirked a bit and leaned up against the door frame. "Thanks again for everything." I said, climbing under the blanket and closing my eyes.

"Just get some sleep Evie." Bats said quietly.

The last thing I remember was closing my eyes and mumbling, "Night Bruce."

Hey guys! I'm done this chapter! This took a lot longer to do since I'm in college again and my classes are every day. So, this chapter was fun to write, even though in some places it feels a little rushed. And that ending! Does Evie know who Bats is? What was she thinking? Ahhhhhhh! Hope to hear from you guys in the reviews!

Love ya!

~S

I do not own any D.C universe characters or plots, only my O.C.


	8. Author Note

Hey guys!

So! I've changed a few things around in the story, I got rid of the first chapter which was Evie's description and put it at the very beginning of chapter 2. By doing so, which I stupidly didn't realize, it changed all the chapter names. So now, Chapter 1 is originally the Chapter 2 that I posted.

On this recent update, the title of the Chapter is called "Chapter 8- The Brave and the Bold" Even though it is now technically the 7th chapter. I'm going to try and fix this after my class today, so just stick with me.

Sorry for the confusion!

~S


	9. Fury

"I just don't get it Shay. I mean, I understand that it's Batman and everything, and that he doesn't do emotions and feelings. I completely understand that," I huffed out, trying to finish my set of weights, "but he just totally shut me out. I didn't even do anything!" I said, setting the weights down and shaking my arms out.

It had been about three weeks since out last adventure, one that involved gorillas and me, getting my ass handed to me by a giant missile. I was currently in the gym with Shayera lifting some weights and doing our normal exercises.

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," She said, setting her weights down and grabbing a towel off the shelf. "You seem to be the closest person to him in the group. If you don't know than the rest of us certainly don't."

The last time Bats and I had talked was after he had tucked me into bed at the Watchtower. After that he seemed even more cold and distant than he had since when I first met him, and I didn't think that was possible!

"Look, Evie, you can't beat yourself up over this. You probably didn't do anything wrong and Bats is just having mood swings. He'll warm up to you again eventually. Just give him some time," Shay said wiping down the equipment and getting ready to leave.

I picked my gym bag and water bottle off the ground and followed her out the door. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just overthinking this." I shifted my bag on my shoulder and continued to walk down the hallway. "G.L said he would give me a ride back to Gotham tonight, so I have to go. Thanks for listening to me," I said.

"No problem. It's nice to have some girl time, you know?" Shayera said, giving me a small wave and heading towards her room in the Watchtower. I headed towards the hangar and waited for G.L to give me a lift back to Gotham. About ten minutes later and a lot of grumbling from a Lantern about the importance of punctuality, I was back at my apartment and changing for my round of night duty.

I peeled off my sweaty gym tank top and shorts and changed into my usual outfit of leggings, leotard, and jacket. I threw my hair up in a loose ponytail with some little hairs framing my face, grabbed my staff, and headed to the roof.

It seemed like a fairly quiet night in Gotham. I loved these nights. It actually let me just sit and admire the beautiful city. Sometimes it's full of bad people doing bad things but on nights like these it made me remember the nights my parents would take me out and show me the wonders of Gotham.

I almost jumped off the ledge of the building I was sitting on when the beeping of my earpiece sliced through my peace and quiet.

"Evie, are you there?" Batman asked me. Oh, now he wants to talk.

I pressed the button and responded. "Yeah, I'm here. What's wrong?"

"I need your assistance on something. Meet me at the abandoned buildings on Gotham's northern side," he said and he quickly hung up.

"Alright," I said to myself, "Let's go." I stood up, grabbed my staff, and jumped off the building and free dove until about halfway down, then I made my disc and flew to the Northern side. I had gotten a bit better with flying during the past few months. I was able to go faster than before and I could concentrate enough now to make a disc appear even when I was falling, a task that was not easy to do but was definitely useful.

About ten minutes later I was approaching the tallest building and I could see a dark figure standing on the edge, brooding as usual. I took my disc to right above Batman was and I jumped off, did a flip in the air, and landed quietly on my feet.

"Dramatic much?" Bats asked me.

"Says the man standing on the edge of a roof top in a bat costume," I sassed right back. He better not think he can get away with shutting me out for weeks at a time and then act all sarcastic around me.

"Earlier tonight there was a break-in at the Gotham Biotech facilities. Copperhead, Grundy, Shade, Tsukuri, Star Sapphire, and another woman stole a plant from one of the labs. We don't know what it was yet," Bats quickly explained.

I arched an eyebrow. "That's a lot of people to steal a dandelion," I said. "Wait, did you say there was another woman? Who was she?"

"I don't know. But I took this from her after she threw me." He pulled out a gold necklace, one whose design looked very familiar but I couldn't quite place.

"That's gorgeous!" I gasped, gingerly taking the necklace out of his grasp. "This design looks familiar, almost as if I've seen it bef-….wait, did you say after she threw you?" I looked at him, wondering who the hell this chick was and how she threw Batman.

He looked even more pissed off and his voice got even more gravelly, something Bats does only when he's really mad. "Focus," He growled. "I already researched the design. It's ancient Greek. Plus with her strength and apparent dislike for men, there's only one thing I can think of."

My eyes widened as I processed what he just said. "She's Amazonian. Just like Diana." I softly said. But this didn't make sense. Why would an Amazonian come here, beat the crap out of Batman, and then steal a plant?

"We need to talk to her." Batman said, taking the necklace out of my hands and putting it in a compartment of his belt.

"I'm sorry, 'we'?" I said, crossing my arms. "You haven't talked to me in weeks. I believe that you can handle this one on your own."

"Evelyn, we don't have time for this," Batman said, rolling his eyes.

"There you go with this 'we' thing again!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air and turning away.

"Evie! Are you going to help me, or not?" Batman yelled. I stopped to look at him and saw that he didn't look as mad as I thought he would. Instead, he looked like he actually wanted my help.

"Fine," I huffed, "but we are talking about this later." I said, pointing a finger at him. He only rolled his eyes and walked toward his jet.

"Let's go, Diana's in the city."

"Okay Batsey, whatever you say." I said, climbing into his jet. I sat there in the jet thinking about why all of a sudden Batman started to talk to me again. I know this sounds like petty high school drama, but it seriously bothers me. Does he not think I'm good enough because I got hurt? I mean, all of us get hurt but that was a close call. What if he doesn't want me in the League anymore? Could he have me kicked out? I love the League, I don't want to go…

"Evie!" I jumped when Batman grabbed my arm and shook me out of my train of thought.

"Sorry," I whispered. I noticed that we landed in an abandoned alley in the city. I unbuckled my seatbelt and started to get out.

"Are you okay?" Batman asked me, raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll wait here, you go get Diana."

Bats walked over to the opening of the alley and waited in the shadows. I heard him call out to her and a minute later she had walked over and was standing in front of us. "Not here. Meet me up on the rooftop." He said and got back in the jet. "I take it you can fly up, right?" He said, brushing past me.

"Yeah, sure." I mumbled, suddenly feeling like Bats didn't actually want me anywhere near him. Diana flew past me after giving me a brief nod and I stepped on a disc and flew up to the roof.

I stood next to Batman and Diana as he talked to her about everything that had happened earlier.

"An Amazon? That's ridiculous." She said, crossing her arms and getting very defensive.

"I don't think so," Bats said, pulling the necklace off of his belt. "I managed to take this off her." He tossed her the necklace and she caught it, examining it closely. "It's an Amazon design, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it could be a forgery. Besides, Amazons don't steal. It's against our code." She threw the necklace back to Bats.

"So is associating with men, yet here you are, working with them every day." I said, examining my nails closely, glancing up only to see the death glare that Diana sent me. She flew away, leaving only Batman and I standing on the rooftop.

"Well, I think she took that well!" I said, with a smile on my face. As mean as it was, I loved proving Diana wrong sometimes, especially when it came to her high and mighty land of Themyscira.

"This isn't funny." Batman said, heading back towards the jet. "I'll have Hawkgirl go to Themyscira and see what she can dig up."

"Well, what about me? I could go." I said, feeling a little put off that Bats didn't want me to go.

"No. You stay here and wait for someone to call you," He said, climbing into the Batjet.

"Seriously? You're ditching me?" I exclaimed, marching over to the jet.

Batman glared at me, a glare he usually reserved for members outside of the team and for people he didn't trust. "Just. Stay. Here." He said through gritted teeth, each word said slowly as if he wanted to make it easier for me to understand.

"Fine," I coldly said, jumping onto a disc and flying into the air. I wanted to say something else, but I was so upset nothing else would come to mind. I didn't even bother looking back before I left.

I flew back to Gotham, figuring that nobody would need me for the rest of the night. I mean, why would they? They have Diana and Shayera to do everything. I like Shay, she's a really close friend of mine, and I hate to think of her any differently. I always feel as if I'm not seen as important as the others on the team. Sure, I have powers but I was never trained with them. I just learned my own style and taught myself. Diana and Shay both had years of formal training.

Is that why Batman was treating me differently now? Maybe he noticed I wasn't as strong as the others and now I wasn't valuable to the team.

For the third time that day I was startled out of my thoughts by a loud police siren. I looked down at the street and noticed that about ten police cars were speeding towards the diamond depository on the edge of the city.

Must be a break-in, I thought to myself. I flew down and followed them before stopping and standing in front of the line of police men.

"Hey, what's going on here?" I asked the Sergeant who was standing near one of the squad cars.

"Robbery. We have a lot of bad guys too. My men are about to get into position." He spoke into his radio next. "I want this whole block sealed off before…"

He never finished his sentence because an earth shattering boom shook the building. Blocks of concrete started falling, and I looked to make sure that no one was in their path before looking back up and seeing who broke into the building.

I immediately recognized the pink shield as Star Sapphires. This must be the group that Bats was talking about earlier. The police started shooting at the shield, but their bullets were only deflected off.

I flew up directly behind the shield and surrounded it with ice, making it much heavier and it started plummeting to the ground. Sapphire must have gotten control over it and she steadied it out. "There's no point in running!" I called out to them, but Shade stepped close to the edge of the shield. He put his staff up, and before I could put an ice shield around myself I was surrounded by blackness. I had no idea which way was up or down, and I lost my concentration and my disc evaporated.

I felt the falling sensation but I couldn't see which way was up or down. After what seemed like forever in the pitch darkness, it disappeared, just in time for me to see the ground was only a few feet away. I turned around in mid-air so that I landed on my back instead of my face.

Pain erupted throughout my body and I immediately arched my back to try and diffuse the pain. After a few minutes I sat up and looked back at the building just in time to see the familiar red cape of Superman entering the hole in the building. "At least I have back up," I muttered.

A minute later an absolutely drop dead gorgeous blonde came jumping out of the hole that Supes had just gone into only a minute before. Why didn't he stop her? I couldn't think about that now, I was more worried about not letting her get away again.

The woman vaulted over all of the police cars and continued running down an alleyway while she was being shot at. I ran after her until I came to the opening of the alleyway and then I stopped. Diana had flew down and landed in front of the blonde, stopping her in her tracks. I heard them both say something, and then the blonde picked up Diana and threw her into the brick wall.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but you might want to look after your friend," The blonde one said, pointing over to the hole in the wall which she jumped out of. I turned to around to see what she was talking about, and I saw Superman still standing there and I immediately knew something was wrong.

Superman pitched forward and fell out of the hole and landed with a loud thud onto the concrete below. Diana immediately flew towards him, but I stayed where I was, watching the blonde for a few seconds. There was no point in me trying to go after her myself, especially since she had taken on Superman singlehandedly.

The blonde ran off down the alley and I watched her until she was out of sight. Once she was gone I ran towards Superman and Diana.

"Superman!" Diana exclaimed after flipping him over onto his back. I ran up the stairs of the building and slid over to where they both were.

"Woah," I whispered. Superman looked sick. His veins had turned blue and were popping out, he was sweating and seemed completely out of it. "What happened?"

Diana looked just as confused as I was, and that worried me a little bit too. There was a loud gust of wind coming behind me, and I knew it could only be one person.

"Hey, what's wrong with the big guy?" Flash asked. Flash and G.L had both responded to the robbery but it seemed they were a little slow in getting here.

"I'm not sure. I found him like this after meeting Aresia," Diana said, propping Superman's head up.

"Who?" Flash asked.

"One of my Amazon sisters."

I quirked my eyebrow up. "So Batman was right?" I asked her.

Diana looked at me quite angrily. Looks like someone doesn't like to admit when their wrong.

"Where is this Aresia?" Lantern asked.

"She got away." Diana said, looking back down at Superman. She stood up, carrying him in her arms. "You track her down while I take Superman back to the Watchtower." And then she flew off.

"So, an Amazon, huh? What now?" Flash asked.

"We look for clues." G.L said.

"Well than, let's split up gang. Shaggy and Scooby, you two can go off by yourselves," I said, putting my arms around the boys' shoulders.

"This isn't funny Evie," Green Lantern said, throwing my arm off of his shoulder.

"You are no fun." I grumbled.

"What are looking for? Fingerprints, matchbooks, self-addressed stamped envelopes?" Flash listed off.

"No. Like this." Lantern had been sweeping the area using his ring and he found an orange patch of dust on the ground. Flash and I went over to get a closer look.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know." Flash said.

"Look, take a sample and get it to the Watchtower," I said. "Maybe J'onn can see what it is."

"What are you going to do?" Flash asked as G.L got a sample of the dust.

"I'll try to contact Batman. With Superman down we'll need all the help we can get," I said forming an ice disc. Will you two be okay?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Flash said. "Go find Mr. dark and creepy."

I rolled my eyes and stepped onto the disc. If you guys need anything let me know." Flash gave me a two fingered salute and I flew off.

I waited until I was well above the city to try and contact Batman. "Hey Bats, you there?"

There was silence for a few seconds before he answered. "What?"

"We have a problem, Superman is down and…"

"Yeah, I already know Evie, Diana already told me everything," Batman interrupted. Oh. Well then.

"Oh, alright then."

"Did you not know that Lantern and Flash are down as well?" Bats asked me, sounding really annoyed that I didn't know.

"What? I was just with them a little bit ago," I said looking down onto the city.

"Well you weren't there and now they have whatever Superman has. Why weren't you there?" Okay, now he is sounding a little bit accusing.

"What are you implying there Batsy?" I asked in my dangerously calm voice.

"Evie, he isn't implying anything. Look, meet us in the city and we can talk about it, okay?" A woman's voice said. It must have been Shay.

"Fine, see you in a bit Shay," and I turned off my communicator. I took a deep breath and counted to ten. Bats was pissing me off, G.L and Flash were both down, probably because I didn't do my job right, and I still felt like I was being sidelined. This was so not my day.

I opened my eyes and looked down at the city. A bright orange glow caught my eye as it kept getting bigger. Damn, must be a fire. I flew down and dropped an enormous splash of water right on top, quickly dowsing it and putting it out. I looked around and noticed that all along this block wrecked cars littered the road and people were running every which way.

"What the hell happened?" I whispered. An explosion and the sound of glass breaking pierced the air. I looked down the street and saw a building on fire, the flames soaring towards the sky.

I jumped on a board and rushed over. Looking closer at the building, I saw that inside were at least five different high voltage generators. Great, look at all the things here waiting to explode. Spotting a fire hydrant that wasn't being used, I shattered it using ice and sent the water out and directly on the fire. Some firefighters were still standing around trying to put the flames out. "Go! I got this! Back up in case the fire hits these electric generators," I yelled out to them. They had just started backing away when one of the generators exploded, throwing them all back.

I made sure that a paramedic was going over to help them before I finished trying to put out the fire. The fire was at least under control when I ran out of water in the hydrant. I looked around and noticed that the only people around me were women. As nice as it is to see, I wondered where all the men firefighters were. Usually they jump at a giant building fire like this.

"Evie!" someone yelled. I looked around, then looked up at the top of the building. I saw the silhouette of wings and knew it was Hawkgirl calling me. I jumped on a disk and flew up to the building. There, Batman and Hawkgirl were standing there looking down at the scene below.

"It's like some kind of plague," Hawkgirl said, "But only half the city's got it."

I looked around and realized the city looked even more disastrous from up here. Buildings and cars were burning, people were running around…it looked like a war zone.

"Yes, the male half," Batman said. I followed his gaze and saw a man being looked at by a paramedic. Even from up here I could see the blue veins contrasting on his sickly pale skin, and his eyes were wide open.

"That's what Superman looked like," I said. Wait. "Bats, if this is effecting the male population you have to get out of here," I said turning to look at him. And of course, Batman being Batman, he didn't move. "I'm serious Batman, go! Before you end up like them," I said, gesturing to the man lying in the street.

Batman only looked at a building across the street and pulled out a grappling hook. "People need help," is all he said before swinging off our building and crashing through a window of a burning one.

"Is he ever going to listen to me?" I asked, throwing my hands up in the air.

"Probably not. Let's go help him before his cape catches on fire," Hawkgirl said, smirking a little bit.

I rolled my eyes and jumped off the building, and landed on a disk. Hawkgirl and I flew to the building and went inside. I started putting water onto the flames in order to make an easier escape route for Bats.

"Bats, hurry up! I can't last too long in here!" I yelled. Suddenly, Hawkgirl grabbed my arm as she flew out the window. She carried me over to the other side of the street while Batman came out carrying a little kid in his arms.

"Lucky I found this one, but he's not doing well," Batman said. Shay picked him up and held him in her arms.

"I'll get him to a hospital," she said. She turned around and flew off, and both of us watched her go.

"You should go too," I said, putting my hands on my hips. Bats held his hand up to his face and let out a faint grown. "Bats?" I asked, stepping a little closer.

"Batman!" I turned around and saw Diana flying down towards us. "You were right. It was a renegade amazon."

"I know," Batman said.

"Yeah Diana, we knew it earlier. You just didn't want to believe us." I said, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

Diana glared at me but turned back to Batman. "I just couldn't believe that one of my sisters could actually-" She was cut off by the screeching of tires. We all turned around and saw a bus heading directly towards us. Before I could react, Batman had pushed Diana and me aside, and he had landed on top of me.

Before I could process what was happening the weight was lifted off my body. I looked up and saw Batman running after the bus. "Here we go again," I mumbled.

I staggered to my feet and jumped on a disc, chasing after him and the runaway bus. I was right behind him when the bus hit a t.v. broadcasting pole. Seeing Diana behind me, I kept following Batman, figuring she could take care of the falling pole.

We finally caught up to the bus. I threw an ice dagger at the back window at the same time Bats threw a grappling hook. The window shattered and we jumped in. Even from back here I could see that the driver was sick.

Batman ran up and took the wheel, and I followed him. "Bats, that's a car…and there's another car you hit." I said, trying to keep the mood light. Although, I don't know how light you can be when you're driving a runaway bus. I looked up to see that we were heading straight for a group of firefighters who were trying to put out another fire. "Bats…" I said.

He jerked the wheel, causing the bus to flip on its side and slide all the way down the street, hitting a fire truck, and then it stopped. I picked myself up off of the ground and stood up. Water from the truck was raining down on us as we kicked out the windows, and Batman carried the driver out and set him on the ground.

Diana landed a few feet from us. I was going to say something when, suddenly, Bats turned around, stumbling and holding his head. Before he could hit the ground I caught his shoulders and gently lowered both of us in a sitting position.

"Batman!" Diana cried out. I flipped him over and saw the blue veins creeping up towards his mask.

"Of course…" I muttered. "I told him this would happen, but no…nobody listens to me. I'm just Evie, I have no idea what I'm talking about." I bitterly said, still holding onto Batman so he didn't fall onto the ground.

Paramedics and firefighters ran over to us to make sure we were okay. I just looked up, letting the water hit my face, and asked myself why today had to suck so badly.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Diana and I made it back up to the Watchtower with Batman in tow. We handed him off to J'onn and rushed over to the medical bay where Flash, Green Lantern, and Superman were all lying in beds.

"If you can excuse me, I need to run some more tests before I know anything else." J'onn said. He walked back into the med bay and left Diana and I standing outside the doors. Without so much as a glance, Diana walked out and headed towards the kitchen. I shook my head and sank down into a chair that was outside the doors, in typical hospital style.

I put my head in my hands, and must have fallen asleep. The next thing I knew, J'onn was waking me up and saying that we could go into the med bay. I walked through the doors and saw all four men laying on the bed, with their blue veins covering their bodies, and sweat pouring down their face. I blushed a bit, seeing that they were all naked from the waist up. Except for Batman and Flash, who still had their masks on. Good lord, these men could be calendar models.

I saw that Diana and Shay were in the room as well. I went to go stand next to Shay and leaned up against the wall. "How are they, J'onn?" Diana asked him.

"Just like the others. Whatever they have, it appears to be an allergen, not a virus. But I can't seem to isolate it." He walked over to one of the microscopes sitting on the table. "Still, every puzzle must have a solution."

"So where do we start?" Shay asks. I push myself off the wall and walk over towards them.

"That's easy. We find Aresia." Diana said.

"Do we have any idea where she is?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"No, but we can find her." Diana said.

"Alright," I said walking towards the door. "I can start prepping the jet."

"You're not going with us."

I stopped and slowly turned around to look at Diana.

"What. Did you say?" I asked.

"You aren't going. Someone needs to stay here."

"J'onn is here!" I yelled, pointing at the green Martian who was awkwardly standing at the microscope. "He can take care of things!"

"If J'onn gets sick then we need someone up here who will still be able to take care of everyone," Diana calmly said. "That person I going to be you."

I looked at Shay to see if she would back me up, but she only glanced down at the ground. I scoffed, "Fine! I'll stay here and play nurse while you two go out and save the world. Just don't ask me for help." I walked over and flopped into a chair sitting by Batman's bed.

The girls exchanged a look and walked out the doors. I crossed my arms and tapped my foot in irritation. J'onn was smart enough to not say anything right now…even a Martian could see that I was pissed off.

"You know, I could use some help up here." He said, gesturing to the men lying on the beds.

I glanced over at them, sighing at the look of pain that was on each of their faces. I decided J'onn was right. "Alright, what do you need me to do?" I asked.

"Try to keep their sweating down. If they get a chill it could develop into an actual sickness."

I walked over to the sink and filled a bowl with warm water and grabbed a towel. I started my way down the line, starting with Flash and ending with Batman. I wiped each of their faces and tried to keep the sweating down as much as possible. They all must have terrible fevers, because no matter what I did, they still looked like they were in pain.

I looked up when I noticed it was abnormally quiet in the room. When I first started I could always here J'onn walking around and fiddling with the machines. Now it was just quiet. "J'onn?" I asked, standing up. I saw him leaning up against the wall.

"J'onn, what are you doing?" I asked, walking closer and setting down the bowl and towel. I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned around, blue veins covering his body and a light sheen of sweat covering his forehead. "Oh, for God's sake." I said.

A beep sounded through the room and I saw the monitor come on. "J'onn, I've got a sample of- oh, no." Shay said, seeing me holding J'onn on the ground.

"Yeah, he's got it too." I said, trying to drag J'onn to a bed.

"The allergen—it must have been on Superman's costume, and when I touched it…" he mumbled, trailing off.

I dragged J'onn off the floor and onto a spare bed. "Did you say you had a sample?" I asked, turning around to face the screen. "Bring it up here, I'll see if I can try to use one of the 8 million machines in this tin can to make an antidote."

Shayera just looked at me. "Do you know how to make an antidote?" she asked, the skepticism stinging me a bit.

"I'm sure I can figure it out." I said, sounding a little colder than I meant to. Oh well, hopefully she'll get the message that I'm mad at her.

She only looked at me for a few seconds before responding. "Alright, I'll drop it off really fast, then I have to go help Diana. They have her mother."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise at that, but nodded my head anyway. I cut off the transmission and ran down to the landing deck to get the vial. A few minutes later the jet pulled into the hangar and I ran over to the hatch.

"Here," Shay tossed me the vial. "Maybe you can save the day after all." She said. I only rolled my eyes before she had already closed the hatch and flew back out.

I rushed the vial up to the med bay and put the vial in a holder. "Alright, if I were an antidote machine, where would I be?" I asked myself. I looked around the room and saw a machine with different holes in the top, big enough to put test tubes in.

I read the label and recognized the name from the very few times I went to the laboratories while in the Navy. Putting the vial in a few different tubes, I turned the machine on. The monitor started and I could see different chemical compounds flashing. "Ha!" I yelled, punching the air. "Not bad for a girl who barely passed biology."

"Evie, are you there?" Diana called into my comm.

"Yeah, I just got the antidote started. I'm not sure how long it will take, though," I said, momentarily forgetting about how I was supposed to be mad at Diana.

"Good, we're on our way back now," Diana said.

"Good. What about Aresia?" The silence that followed told me all I needed to know. "Right, well, I'll see you when you get here then," I said, turning off my comm.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The antidote had worked perfectly. Within an hour of it entering the boy's bloodstreams, they were up and about in no time. I left the rest of the medicine to J'onn, and left the med bay.

"Evie!" I turned around and saw Superman following me.

"Hey big guy, you feeling better?" I asked him.

"Much, thanks to you," he said. I felt a little blush creep into my cheeks. "J'onn just finished the antidote and G.L. and I are about to distribute it down to the hospitals. Do you want to come with us? Seeing as it's your antidote anyway."

I thought about it for a minute. "No thanks, but if you're going down, mind if I catch a lift to Gotham? A change of clothes would be great right now." I said, gesturing to my dirty jacket and leotard.

Superman chuckled. "Sure, no problem."

I was back in my apartment twenty minutes later. I wasted no time jumping in the shower and changing into sweatpants, t-shirt, and a jacket. I climbed out my window, onto the fire escape, and made my way onto the roof.

A soft flapping of cloth in the wind alerted me of someone else on the roof.

"We need to talk."

I groaned, looking over at the shadowed Batman on the other side of the roof.

"You look much better," I said.

He only glared at me. "That isn't what I meant."

I crossed my arms. "Well, I'm not in the mood to talk about it." I turned back so that my legs were dangling on the roof and I was facing the city. Footsteps approached, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Batman sit next to me on the roof.

I looked over and raised my eyebrow at him in question. He didn't look at me. Well, if he wanted to have this talk then I guess he was gonna have it.

"Do you think I'm weak?" I asked.

Immediately he responded, "No."

"Then why have you been shutting me out? You haven't talked to me in weeks, and today you barely let me do anything! You relied on Diana and Shay to do it. Just because I got hurt by a missile last time, doesn't mean that I am any less a part of this team! It doesn't mean I'm weak, and it certainly doesn't mean that I can't do any less than what you guys do!" I ranted, stopping only to catch my breath. I lowered my voice, "Look, I know compared to you guys I'm not that special but it still hurts when you treat me like it."

It was silent for a few moments, until Bats broke it. "You don't think you're special?" Well, that wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting something along the lines of 'you're a valued member of the team, you just need to earn your stripes, and blah blah blah'.

"No," I said slowly, "not really."

Bats seemed to ponder this for a few minutes. "Evie, you are an amazing part of this team. You're excellent in combat, your powers are incredibly useful, you're one of the bravest people I've met and you are so selfless. You always put other people before you." He paused for a moment to look at me. "Sometimes you do stupid things, but it's always for the right reason."

"I do not do stupid things!" I interjected.

Batman rolled his eyes. "Evie, you tried to stop a missile by yourself and you were practically crushed by it." Okay, he got me there. "We try and protect you because we all know we can't lose you. Losing you would be catastrophic, not only to the team, but for each of us personally."

Okay, who is this guy and what did he do with Batman? I looked back over the city and what Bats said started to sink in.

"I don't think Diana feels that way. She probably wouldn't mind if I left the team."

"Yeah, she doesn't like you that much…" Bats said, rubbing his neck a bit. Thanks for being sensitive. "But either way, her opinions of you doesn't affect the rest of us and how we think of you."

"I guess you're right." I mumbled, suddenly feeling foolish for how easily I got pissed off at him earlier today.

"There isn't any guessing about it, I'm always right." Batman said with a smirk. Okay, I found Batman again.

"Oh, sure," I said, gently nudging his shoulder. "I am glad to see you doing better though. Although maybe next time you'll listen to me when I tell you that you should leave. It would save us all a lot of trouble," I said, mock glaring at him. Bats chuckled.

"Yeah, I probably should. Being sick is not fun at all."

We sat on the roof in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, until a breeze came, causing me to shiver. Of course, Batman noticed it. "Go inside or else you'll be the next sick person around here," he said.

I went to protest until I realized I actually was cold. I stood up and walked towards the edge of the fire escape. I turned around, "Thanks Bats, for the talk. It means a lot."

"Anytime." He said, right before he grappled himself off the roof. I smiled to myself and climbed into my window, ready to not wake up for a good 10 hours.

AHHHHHHH! I know, I haven't updated in forever! And I'm super sorry! College kicked my butt a little bit this semester, but now that it's over I will definitely be updating much more frequently. Thank you guys for sticking with it after two months of nothing! You guys are the best!

Leave a review if you guys want to see anything specific and I'll try to incorporate it in somehow.

I do not own anything except my OC.


	10. Christmas Eve

Christmas used to be my favorite time of year. When I was really young I always loved coming home after school, backpack full of Christmas crafts that I had made during recess. Mom used to hang them up all over the house, saying that they made our house feel like home. My sister never really got into the Christmas spirit like I did. I always helped my mom decorate the house and made sure that cookies were made, a tree was decorated, and everything was ready for when Santa came. My sister helped a little, but she was never as enthusiastic as I was. My dad used to call me his little Christmas elf, because I helped so much with everything.

After they died, I couldn't find it in me to celebrate it anymore. The warmth that the holiday used to fill me with was replaced with a chill that I couldn't make go away. I usually spent Christmas with a different foster family, and was never the same as being with my actual family. Seeing all the warm lights that decorated people's houses reminded me that my parent's house now had a different family in it, and it probably looked completely different. The smell of cookies baking gave me flashbacks of my mom and I in the kitchen, and it always made me sad. The entire holiday season just reminded me of how alone I was. That's how, on this Christmas Eve, I found myself wandering around the empty streets of Gotham.

At first I was sitting in my apartment reading, but I couldn't focus on the words. My mind was wandering to a past that I didn't want to remember. I decided to bundle myself up and go for a walk. Sure, it was freezing, but because of my powers the cold didn't bother me as much as it did other people. I put my dark blue pea coat over my tan sweater, threw on a pair of low heeled boots, and headed outside.

I wasn't really paying that much attention to where I was going, and soon I found myself in one of the sketchier parts of downtown. Even some of the run down houses had a few Christmas lights up. I ignored them and kept walking. I stopped at a corner and looked across the street and noticed a small bar that was open.

It may not have been the most responsible decision, but I decided that I might as well try and drown some of my sorrows in alcohol. I walked into the bar and let the heat wash over me, a nice contrast to the freezing cold that was outside. I shrugged my jacket off and hung it up on a hook by the door. Scanning the bar I realized that it was mostly empty, the only exception being a few people sitting at a table in the corner, and a broad shouldered, dark haired man sitting at the bar.

I made my way over to the bar and sat on a stool a few seats down from the dark haired man, not really caring enough to spare him a glance. The bartender walked over and asked what I wanted. "Bourbon on the rocks, please," I replied, running my hand through my wavy hair.

"Bad day?" he asked.

"Something like that," I said.

He put the glass of ice in front of me and poured the bourbon in. "Thanks," I said, raising the glass up in a small toast. I took a sip of the brown liquid and shivered a bit as it burned going down.

"I didn't take you for a bourbon kind of girl."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I turned, about to tell this guy that he didn't know a thing about me, when I finally noticed the familiar black hair and really strong jaw line. "Bruce?" I asked, my jaw falling open in shock.

Bruce Wayne chuckled and sent me a smirk. "Hello Evie," He said, holding up his own glass of brown liquid.

"W-what are you doing here?" I stuttered still in complete shock that of all places in Gotham on Christmas Eve, Bruce Wayne would be sitting next to me in some crappy bar.

He stood up from his barstool and walked over next to mine. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Um, no. Of course not," I said, pulling the stool out for him.

"Thanks," He said sending a small smirk my way. He sat down and downed the rest of his glass. "I think the question here is, what are you doing here on Christmas Eve?"

I could see that he was avoiding the question and I sent him a smirk of my own. "I believe that I asked you first."

He chuckled, and shook his head. "Yes. Yes you did." The bartender came over and refilled his glass. Bruce swirled the brown liquid around in his glass and stared down at the counter. "The holidays aren't necessarily my favorite time of year," he said quietly. The atmosphere between us suddenly seemed a lot sadder. I felt a little guilty asking him about it. Everyone knew that Bruce's parents were killed when he was younger. He was probably here for the same reason I was.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," I said, taking another sip of my drink. He glanced up at me, his brows were furrowed and I knew he was silently asking what I meant. I took a deep breath and blew the air through my nose. "My parents and sister died when I was twelve. We were in a car accident. Christmas isn't easy for me either."

Bruce was silent for a minute. "I'm sorry," he finally said. I couldn't help but snort into my glass.

"I should probably apologize too. I shouldn't have pushed the subject for you either." I looked up at him to see a small smile on his face.

"It's fine. It isn't like you don't know my history anyway. Everyone does. I figured you would since you grew up in Gotham." He must have seen my face fall because his eyes widened and he quickly said, "Don't worry, it's okay. I've had a long time to get used to it."

I relaxed a bit, relieved that I wasn't offending him any. I thought about how he knew that I was from Gotham. I took another sip of my drink and figured that I had mentioned it the last time that we had met.

I decided to change the subject away from our dead families. "Okay, I can understand wanting a drink, but that doesn't explain why you are in a crappy place like this. You could afford anywhere in Gotham, and I'm sure there are other places open that are much better than this."

Bruce merely shrugged. "I know the owner. He keeps the photographers away and in return I get him some of the good stuff," He said, holding up his glass.

"Hm, that's pretty smart."

Bruce smirked again, "Yeah, I have my moments." We sat in silence for a few moments before the clock in the corner of the room chimed 11. I hadn't realized just how late it was.

"Well, I should probably go," I said, setting my money on the counter and standing up. "Who knows when I'll need to be up tomorrow."

Bruce stood up and put a fifty dollar bill on the counter. "Here, let me walk you home."

"You don't have to. It's only a twenty minute walk. Besides, I'm a superhero. I don't think there is anything here that I can't handle," I joked. Bruce shrugged his jacket on and gave me a look that said he wasn't going to let me go alone. "Alright, whatever."

After putting on my coat, we walked out of the bar and headed in the direction of my apartment. "I meant to ask you something," I said.

"Go ahead."

"Do you remember when we first met? At the bookstore?" I asked, looking up at him.

He chuckled, "Yes, you ran into me and then fell."

I felt my cheeks go red and I cleared my throat. "Yeah, anyway. You started calling me Evie that day, but I never told you that I went by that. I only told you my name was Evelyn."

He faltered in his steps for a second and sent me a wide eyed glance. He cleared his throat and looked up the street. "Oh, well, I guess I just heard it from somewhere. That's all."

I quirked an eyebrow, not quite believing the billionaire walking next to me. "Mhmm, sure…"

Bruce looked over at me, "I swear!" I studied his super handsome face for a few seconds before deciding to drop the conversation. If he didn't want to tell me than I certainly wasn't going to be able to make him.

I thought of both instances where Bruce and I had been together. He seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and he has quite a good bit of knowledge about me. I remembered the night that Batman had put me to bed in the Watchtower. At the time I had thought that the two men had been similar, though I believed it was due to the concussion I had that I made that connection. Now, after spending enough time with both of them I could see even more similarities.

No way, Bats isn't Bruce Wayne, I thought. I mean, Bruce is a loaded billionaire, and Bats is a superhero…who probably needs a lot of money for his equipment…and their smirks are similar…and Bruce does know a lot about me…

"You know, I have a friend that reminds me of you," I said, shoving my hands in my pockets, figuring that I would see if I could get a reaction out of Bruce. "He likes to answer questions with other questions, he is always soo mysterious, and you two have quite a similar smirk."

Bruce completely stopped walking this time and he turned to look at me. "Really? Does this friend have a name?"

"I'm sure he does, but I don't actually know it. I only know his, well, I guess you could call it a nickname," I said, looking up at his really dark eyes. Something seemed to flash in them, but it quickly disappeared.

"Well, if he's like me then he must be a really great guy," Bruce said, giving me another of his famous smirks.

I hesitated before smiling and nodding. "Yeah, he really is." We walked in silence for a few more minutes and I tried sorting my thoughts. Okay, look Evelyn. Just because both men have similar characteristics does not mean that they are the same person. And if they are the same person then they will tell you when they want to, so stop being a bother.

I shook myself out of my thoughts when I noticed we were at my building. "Oh, we're here," I said as I stopped walking. Bruce seemed to have come out of his thoughts as well, because he looked a bit startled.

"Oh, so we are. Well, I guess this is goodnight," He said, stopping in front of the steps of my building.

"I guess it is," I replied as I turned around on the first step. Now I was at the same height as Bruce. "Thanks for walking me home," I quietly said while tucking some of my hair behind my ear. I could feel a heat creeping up on my cheeks and I bashfully looked down at my boots.

Before I could react I felt something soft on my cheek, and I realized that Bruce had leaned over and gave me a quick peck on it. "Merry Christmas, Evie." He said, stepping off my stairs and onto the sidewalk.

My blush felt like it was on fire as I tried to fight the giant grin that was making my way onto my face. "Merry Christmas, Bruce." I said. He started walking away when I called out to him. "Are you okay walking by yourself?"

He let out an actual laugh this time and turned around. "Don't worry, I think I'll be fine." I let out a quiet laugh and gave him a small wave, which he returned. I turned around and went into my building, up the stairs, and unlocked my front door. I made my way through the dark room and changed into my pajamas. Then I climbed into bed, and laid awake for a few hours, thinking about what I thought I had found out; Bruce Wayne could be Batman.

Hey guys! I gave you all a small present and wrote this really quick filler chapter. Just do me a favor and pretend that the last chapter happened about this time, just so the timeline can stay somewhat straight. Hopefully I'll add the next chapter in a few days! I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! Thanks for sticking with me.

~S


	11. Injustice For All

"I'm just saying! If Luthor has that much money, then why doesn't he live somewhere nicer?"

"Evie, is now really the time for this conversation?"

"I'm only thinking out loud, Bats."

One whole hour. That's how long Batman, Green Lantern and I had been hiding outside of the room Luthor was using while he interrogated 'Superman'. An hour is a long time to wait while your only company is a guy dressed in green who isn't your biggest fan, and a guy dressed as a bat who you may or may not know their secret identity. So I did what I always do when I'm nervous and in a position I don't want to be in…I ramble.

"Could both of you shut up? I'm trying to listen," Lantern snapped. Well, isn't he being grumpy today? I opened my mouth to say something else but Batman nudged me in the ribs and shook his head. I rolled my eyes. Of course, it would come down to Batman to make sure I didn't get in trouble.

"So, this is how it ends. You know, I've carried this around for years waiting for just the right moment but now that it's here, I almost feel a little…let down," Lex said.

"Okay, so he's been in there an hour already and he's just now starting his monologue? What kind of villain is he? Usually these things start right off the bat." I grumbled, crossing my arms and trying to move into a more comfortable position.

Lantern glared at me and I glared right back. After about five seconds we both turned towards the door in order to hear a little better.

"Any last requests?" Luthor asked Superman.

"Luthor, I have to know. Those weapons you sold to the terrorists, how—"

"How did I get them through customs?" Luthor interrupted. "A gift here, a bribe there. When money talks, people listen." We heard footsteps heading towards the door, before they stopped. "Like Stafrose of the shipping company. Or Schneider, the Interpol agent who looked the other way."

"Well gentlemen, that sounds like enough evidence to put him behind bars for a couple years, don't you think?" I said, standing up and shaking my legs out. Beside me, Lantern and Batman both got ready to go in the room and arrest Luthor.

"Sounds like you're going to have company in prison." We heard 'Superman' say. Well, there's our cue.

"Are we ready?" I asked, grabbing my staff off my waist and extending it.

"Just another minute," Batman said.

We heard rushing footsteps and then Lex exclaim, "It can't be! The Kryptonite—"

"Won't protect you any longer." The deep and accented voice of J'onn said.

"Now can we go?" I asked, itching to put Luthor in a jail cell where he belongs.

Batman opened the door and we all stepped in. "You're usually more careful, Lex," Batman said. "You slipped up."

"And you're going down hard." Lantern said. He used his ring to wrench the Kryptonite out of Luthor's hands. It flew across the room and into Batman's hands. The annoying green, pulsing light disappeared when he put it in a compartment of his belt and we could all actually see again.

"Mission accomplished," Batman said, speaking into his communicator.

Luthor backed up towards his desk, and I had a bad feeling about this whole thing. This just seemed too easy. Luthor was a genius and probably had a million different escape routes planned. I stepped forward and walked to Luthor's right side.

"So much for your image as the benevolent businessman," J'onn said. Lantern and Batman walked over so that we were all surrounding Luthor. "This is the end of an era."

I tensed as Luthor reached into his jacket pocket. "The end of your era, maybe," He said pulling out a remote from his pocket and pressing the button on it. Outside the window I saw a flash of gray and recognized one of the flying ships that Lexcorp frequently made.

"Watch out!" I yelled but it was too late. The ship had already sent a beam directly at the three other men in the room. I threw a wall of ice up in front of them to try and block the beam, but it barely slowed it down. All my ice did was shatter everywhere. More beams flew in the room and we all had to duck and dodge in order to avoid being hit.

I had just rolled out of the way of a beam that came very close to taking six inches off my hair, when I looked up at the ship and saw that Luthor was hanging off the sides. He jumped in and not even a second later, two rockets flew through the window and hit the ceiling.

I was too far away from everyone else to try and help them, and I hoped that Lantern was fast enough to get a shield over them. Instead I threw my arms up and made a wall of ice, about six inches thick to form a dome around me and block the fire and falling debris that was now raining down on all of us.

After a few seconds of silence, I figured that the damage had been done and it was safe to come out, at least without getting blown up. I melted the ice and stored the water back into my staff. All around me was small fires and debris, but no sign of the boys.

"Guys?" I yelled out, automatically fearing the worse. I could feel my heart quicken and a cold sweat had enveloped me. There was a loud noise behind me, like a shifting of the ceiling that had fallen on the floor. The debris was lifted and I saw that Lantern had made a shield to cover them in.

I let myself relax, seeing that they were all perfectly okay. I walked over to the shattered window and looked out, seeing absolutely no sign of Lex anywhere.

"Why do they always run?" Lantern asked.

"Who knows?" I said, brushing some dirt off my leggings, "But Superman is out there. Lex will be in custody in a few minutes and this whole situation will be over."

"Yeah, for now. Soon we'll have the media asking us a billion questions, the media following us around, and even the government will want answers about Lexcorp. We won't ever get any rest!" Lantern exclaimed.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic green bean. Everything will be just fine." I said, patting his shoulder just as I passed him.

I was halfway to the door when we heard Superman through the coms system. "We have a problem. Lex is hurt."

I turned back to the others and saw the same look of confusion on everyone's face. "What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'm taking him to the hospital now," Superman said. "Go back and regroup at the Watch Tower. I'll let you know if anything changes." A beep sounded, and the coms unit shut off.

"So much for everything being fine," Lantern grumbled. I rolled my eyes and headed out the door and up to the roof where the Batjet was parked.

"Bats, am I riding with you?" I called over my shoulder. The only answer I got was a grunt as he walked past me. Alrighty then, I guess that's how this is going to be. I climbed into the jet and we took off, heading for the Watch Tower.

Let me tell you, it was the most uncomfortable silence I have ever experienced. The tension was so thick you could practically cut it with a batarang. I assume it's because Bat's regretting the way he has been acting outside of work, as Bruce I mean. He can't seriously blame me for that though. I mean, he isn't being too secretive about his secret identity with me. He might as well be holding a neon blinking sign saying "I'm both Batman and Bruce Wayne!".

"So, you're being quiet today," I said, trying to break the tension a little big. After a few moments he didn't say anything. At first I thought he was thinking of some really long, heartfelt answer about how he trusts me with his identity and how much I mean to him. That is, until I heard his actual answer.

"I'm always quiet."

Wow, thanks Bats. Way to get a girl's hopes up. Thankfully we arrived at the Watch Tower before any more embarrassing conversations could occur.

Once he landed, Bats stepped out and practically ran out of the hangar, all before I could even undo my seatbelt. This should be a nice couple of days until he loses this attitude. I jumped down from the jet and headed to the information center where everyone else was. Lantern was just finishing explaining what happened to Flash when Superman appeared on the screen.

"What's going on?" Diana asked him.

"Lex has a rare form of blood poisoning. The doctors believe it was from the Kryptonite that he carried around for so long." Superman said, looking down.

"Can they fix it or something?" Flash asked.

"No. It's terminal."

I raised my eyebrows. Well that was unexpected. The whole room went dead silent as we all processed this information. It was completely obvious that Superman felt guilty over the whole thing.

"Superman, it isn't your fault," I softly said. Everyone looked at me, and I looked back at them. "Well it isn't! Nobody could have known that this would happen. Luthor kept the kryptonite near him so it could be used as a weapon. As terrible as it is, it's his own fault. Not yours." I finished, looking at the screen.

Superman looked a little relieved. "Thanks Evie. I'll still stay here until he wakes up."

"Alright. We'll see you soon," Diana said, cutting off the transmission. After a few seconds of silence everyone started to disperse from the room. Flash ran off, I'm assuming to the kitchen, Batman slunk into the shadows and disappeared, and Lantern seemed to be going off on another rant that I didn't feel like listening to.

"Can someone take me home? I have a patrol tonight," I asked the rest of the people in the room.

"Sure, I would not mind," to my surprise Diana spoke up.

I only nodded my head and we walked side by side to the hangar. We walked into her jet and she sat in the driver's seat. I'm not gonna lie, it was a little uncomfortable. I mean, we obviously don't have the best relationship and we certainly aren't friends. Oh well, why would I question a nice gesture from her?

"Evie, is everything alright between you and Batman?" Diana nonchalantly asked me.

"Um, I guess so. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, it just seemed a little awkward between the two of you, that's all."

I mentally sighed. Is this how my day was going to be? Really awkward conversations with different superheroes in their jets? I decided not to say much else, mostly because I didn't even know what was going on between Bats and I. If I didn't know, then there certainly wasn't any reason that she should know either. A couple minutes of awkward silence filled the air before Diana broke it.

"Here we are, right back in Gotham."

I stood up and headed towards the back of the plane. "Thanks for the ride."

"Your welcome."

She lowered the hatch and I jumped out and onto an ice disc. It was night time, meaning I had a full seven hours of circling Gotham, stopping crime, and trying to clean up all of the muddled thoughts that were circling my brain.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Evie, you can go. I'll take it from here," J'onn told me as he walked into the monitor room.

"Are you sure?" I asked, looking away from the monitors that lined the wall.

"Of course, you've been here all day so far."

I smiled and stretched my arms above my head as I stood up. "Thanks J'onn."

He smiled back at me and took a seat in the chair I had just been occupying. I wandered around for a little bit, deciding on where I wanted to go. I spotted a very familiar hallway and turned down it, deciding to head to the pool. I figured I might as well try and work on my powers a bit more. I knew how to manipulate ice and water perfectly. Now I wanted to learn how to use my powers with snow. It could be useful, blinding someone with a sudden flurry sounded fun. Plus it would help when I had to shovel the snow outside my apartment.

I sat next to the pool and closed my eyes, concentrating on what I wanted to do. All I had to do was freeze the water vapor in the air a little bit, but not so much that it automatically became ice. I pictured snow in my head, then all around me. I opened my eyes and saw that little white flakes were just hovering in the air. I smiled and jumped up, so excited that I had almost gotten it. Unfortunately I lost my concentration, and the flakes melted and a giant sheet of rain fell on me instead.

I laughed for a minute before evaporating it off me and sitting down to try again. I had only sat down for a few seconds when my coms unit went off. "Evie!" the angry voice of Green Lantern rang through my ears, "Get to the hangar now! Humanite and Luthor escaped."

Shit, I thought. I raced through the hallways and made it to the hanger in less than a minute. Shayera was already preparing a jet so we left immediately. Through the coms, I could hear Batman was at the scene of a building explosion. In minutes we had made it to the city and we could see the burning building.

"Shay, let me out here." I said, already standing at the hatch. She opened up the door and I jumped out, practically diving into a hole that was created from the flames climbing through the roof. "Bats!" I yelled, but I doubted he would hear me over the roar of the flames.

I heard a loud crash and decided to head that way, figuring that was where Batman would be. I rounded a corner just in time to see the stairs give way, leaving him and the little girl he was holding trapped on the landing.

I shot water around them, trying to clear up some of the flames that were beginning to rise up, but the building was just too hot, the water was evaporating before I could even make a difference. Batman must have noticed me and my water because he looked up at me. Just as we made eye contact a loud boom sounded behind me, throwing enough force to knock me off my ice disc and cause me to fall.

My face was inches away from being burnt off when I was able to create another disc to catch me. I laid on the disc for a second catching my breath before I heard a loud scream. I looked up to see Bats and the girl were freefalling directly into the flames.

"NO!" I yelled, throwing my arm out and shooting a sheet of ice directly under them. They landed on it for only a second before it completely melted and they kept falling. I flew down after them, and managed to catch Batman's arm right before they went completely in the flames. Another set of hands helped me steady them, and I looked up to see it was Shayera.

She took Batman while I went around and took the girl out of his arms and carried her outside. "Sweetie, are you okay?" I asked her as I set her gently on the ground.

"Yeah, but where's my…Daddy!" She exclaimed after looking around herself. She tore herself from my grasp and ran into her father's outstretched arms. I stood up and couldn't fight he smile that was on my face.

"We're used to being thanked when we save someone," Shayera said gesturing to herself and me, while looking at Bats.

"I'm not used to being saved," Bats said. I scoffed at that and looked back at the little girl who was till hugging her father.

In the distance I could see two red figures speeding towards us, and within seconds Flash and Superman stood in front of all of us.

"Where are Luthor and the Humanite?" Batman asked them.

"We couldn't pick up their trail," Superman said.

"No biggie. It's just two guys," Flash said, "How much trouble can they give us?" We all looked at Flash like he was crazy. I reached forward and punched his shoulder. "Hey!" Flash said, rubbing it. I only pointed at the burning building for him to get the point. "Oh."

"Let's go back to the Watch Tower and see what we can find," Superman suggested. I agreed with him. There wasn't much we could do on the ground here, Luthor and Humanite were long gone.

"Hawkgirl, where did you park the jet?" I asked her. She looked a bit startled at the question, but she answered anyway.

"Up on the roof a few buildings over," She said.

"Alright. Flash, you need a ride up?" I turned and asked him.

"Sure thing, Ice Queen," He said throwing his arm around my shoulder. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Alright then." I formed a disc under our feet and headed up towards the rooftops.

"So, what's going on with you and Prince of Darkness nowadays?" Flash asked once we got to the rooftop.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I must have sounded a little annoyed, but that's because I was. This is the second person in the last few days to ask me about this.

"Well, before, you two were joined at the hip. Now, you barely talk to each other except when you have to," Flash said. "Did something happen?"

I looked over and saw that he looked a little concerned. Deciding I shouldn't tell him everything, I went with a half-truth. "No, everything's fine. He just mentioned something to me before and now I think he regrets it a little bit," I said, opening up the hatch of the jet and waling in.

"Do you want me to punch him for you?" Flash asked, now back to his usual joking demeanor.

I let out a loud laugh. "No, don't do that. I don't think you'd survive if you did that, and what would we do without you?"

Flash laughed and we both sat down, starting the jet up so that as soon as Shay came back we could leave.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

As soon as we had gone back to the Tower, Bats had occupied the computer looking for where Luthor and Humanite could be. I went to the kitchen to grab a mug of coffee, and when I came back, Flash and Shay were talking.

"And I had those flames out before the firemen could even step off their trucks," Flash was saying, obviously bragging to try and get some attention from her.

"That's fast," Shay said, but she didn't sound like she was impressed. I smirked into my coffee mug, knowing where this conversation was probably heading.

"Fastest man alive," Flash said, rubbing his knuckles against his uniform.

"Which might explain why you can't get a date," Shayera said. I snorted into my coffee mug and shook my head, knowing that Flash had walked right into that one. I figured I should walk away before Flash realizes what she meant by that. I walked over and sat in the unoccupied chair next to Batman. I sipped on my coffee while watching the screen.

Batman was typing for a few minutes before the news popped up with a breaking news story. "A dangerous hostage situation developing at the federal building. So far, the Ultra-Humanite has refused to speak with negotiators." The camera panned to the front of the Metropolis Federal Building where dozens of police and swat teams were lined up. A picture of Humanite appeared on the screen. "A freak of science, the Humanite is reportedly a genius who is also extremely dangerous."

"No biggie, right?" Batman asked Flash.

"Looks like we found our convicts. I'm sure Luthor has something to do with this too." I said, putting down my coffee mug. Batman stood up and walked away, probably heading towards the hangar. Shay, Flash and I all looked at each other for a moment before I stepped forward. "Come on, we should probably follow him."

A few minutes later we had arrived at the building. "Green Lantern and I will take the front, then Batman will grab the hostage. The rest of you, go inside once the front is clear," Superman told us through our com sets.

I waited until Superman pushed Humanite through the front doors before we all dropped into the building. Besides Superman fighting Humanite, the building seemed to be silent, which was really strange. I walked over to a door with Green Lantern. "I've got a bad feeling about this," I said, pulling my staff out.

Before he could respond, the door that we were in front of burst open and Grundy charged out. Lantern and I were thrown back onto the ground. I rolled out of the way and stood up, looking at Grundy. He ignored me and focused on Lantern, throwing him through the ground onto the level below.

I turned around when I heard Superman cry out, and I saw that Star Sapphire had blasted him. "Surprised?" She asked? I glanced over and saw that Batman was fighting with, was that a cheetah? I couldn't worry about him as I looked back at Humanite and Sapphire. I pointed my staff at her and encased her in a block of ice, causing her to slam down to the ground.

Humanite looked at her and then back to me. "Easy there big fella," I said, walking backwards a little as he advanced on me. "Don't do anything stupid."

"With my intellect, that's impossible." Before I could move he had grabbed my leg and tossed me aside like a rag doll. I hit a wall and slumped down, holding my head.

I shook the pain off and stood up, seeing Grundy whaling on Superman, Batman fighting the cat girl and Copperhead. "I'm going to enjoy this." I heard a voice above me say. I looked up and saw Lex standing there watching Superman get beaten to a pulp.

I shot a beam of ice up onto the balcony he was standing on, but he must have seen me, because he dodged it just in time. I looked around and saw that everyone else had arrived, and we seemed to have the situation under control. Flash ran past me and I saw a dark shadow sliding off the wall.

That's weird, shadows don't slide, I thought. A pale man wearing dark glasses, a black top hat and black suit walked out of the shadows. I raised an eyebrow as I looked over him and he looked at me.

"Dude, why do you look like a rejected Dracula?" I asked. He only sneered at me and raised his staff up, but instead of pointing it at me, he pointed it at Flash. I can't even describe what came out of his staff, other than blackness. Whatever it was, it enveloped Flash and slammed him into the wall.

I looked back at him and he raised his staff up to me, but I rushed forward kicked his arm down. He tried fighting back, but it was obvious that he was a terrible fighter. When he realized he was seriously outmatched, he backed up but I landed a few punches on him. He tripped and laid on the ground, groaning in pain. "Stay down," I said. I jogged off to go help some of the others, but before I could reach any of them, blackness enveloped me.

Now, I'm not scared of the dark at all, I mean I work at night all the time. But this wasn't even dark. It was nothing. It was cold and lonely. I couldn't move or see, and the dark seemed to be suffocating me. I could feel my body being raised up, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

As suddenly as it came, the blackness left and I was blinded by the light. I felt my body falling but I couldn't move in time to break my fall. I landed on my back on what appeared to be the balcony that Luthor was on before. I groaned, rolling over to my stomach, trying to get the pounding in my head to go away. I looked over the wall and saw that Batman had just punched rejected Dracula, causing him to stay down.

Star Sapphire decided to start shooting everywhere, causing a beam from the ceiling to fall. Wonder Woman took care of it before it caused any real damage. I looked around and saw that Luthor was on the upper level right across from me. I picked up my staff and started running towards him when I heard footsteps behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Batman was right behind me.

Of course he would be. God forbid he lets me do anything by myself, I grumbled in my head. In seconds we were right in front of Lex. Lex grabbed his gun from his holster, and Bats seemed to freeze up for a second before he completely tackled Luthor to the ground. Batman pulled him up, but Lex head butted him, then gave him a quick punch which pushed Bats into me. We were both on the ground and Lex grabbed the gun.

He leveled hit at us, a super creepy supervillain grin forming on his face. Bats pushed me behind him, shielding me.

Do you know how in movies, when someone shoots a gun, it's always in slow motion? That wasn't the case. Lex pulled the trigger and it seemed like the world sped up. Instinctively, I threw my arms up and made an ice shield about a foot thick, but it wasn't in front of me, it was in front of Bats.

It's a good thing it was in front of him too, because encased in the ice was a bullet, literally inches away from where his chest was. I let out a shaky breath, thanking whatever God was up there that I had gotten my arms up in time.

Except now, Lex looked pissed. He leveled the gun at me, but before he could do anything, out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright pink light headed straight for us. Batman grabbed my arm and pulled me back, not a moment too soon, because the beam hit exactly where we had been sitting. The balcony crumbled and we saw Lex fall through the hole that was made.

"Are you okay?" I asked Bats, slightly out of breath. He didn't say anything. All he did was stare at me. "Bats?" I asked again. Bats reached out and grabbed my arm, hauling me away from him.

Before I could protest, I saw why. Copperhead had made his way up the wall and was now on Batman's back. Wait, was he biting him?

Batman grunted and fell to the ground from the sudden weight of Copperhead on him. A green beam of light threw Copperhead off of him. Lantern flew down and hovered above both of us. "Are you alright?" He asked Batman.

"Don't worry about me," He said, rubbing his shoulder. "Stop them," He said, looking down below at the rest of the villains. Lantern flew off and Bats sunk to his knees. I ran over to him and kneeled in front of him.

"Shit, you were bit," I said, looking at his shoulder. "I don't know how to fix this. Is he venomous or poisonous? I don't know how mutant snake people work. I've heard of people sucking the poison out of wounds before but I don't know how to do that. J'onn will have to take a look at it, but we have to hurry," I rambled off a mile a minute. "What if we don't get back in time?"

"Evie."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Evie!"

"If you don't make it, can I have the batmobile?"

"Evelyn!"

"What?!" I yelled

"I'm going to be fine," Bats said looking at me. "Just calm down." I noticed the sweat that was starting to gather on his forehead. That certainly isn't a good sign.

"Okay. Calm. I can do calm." I said, putting my hand on the shoulder that wasn't bit. "Just stay awake for me okay?" I said when I noticed he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. "Bats. Eyes. Open. Now," I said, shaking his shoulder.

One second I was looking at Batman, when the next second there was nothing but blackness all around us. Great, Dracula is at it again.

After a few seconds, the blackness disappeared and the room was eerily quiet. I looked over at Batman and saw he was lying completely on the ground.

"I need help up here!" I yelled. Superman and Flash were the first ones over. Flash saw Copperhead lying on the ground, still out cold.

"We've still got one of them," He said.

"Yeah, but they got one of us," Superman said. We both rolled Batman over and saw that the sweating was worse and now he felt cold.

"We need to get him up to J'onn. Now!" I said when I saw that nobody was moving.

"I"ll take him," Lantern said. He put both of us in his green sphere and we flew up towards the Watch Tower.

When we got there J'onn was already waiting in the hangar and he rushed Batman to the medical wing. I ran after them, hoping that J'onn would easily be able to fix him. I walked in the med bay and looked for them. At the end of the room J'onn already had Batman attached to a heart monitor, and was injecting him with fluids.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked walking towards them.

"Not right now. I injected him with the anti-venom. Now his body just needs rest."

I nodded and sat in a chair that was next to the bed. "Do you mind if I stay here?"

J'onn smiled at me. "Of course not. Stay as long as you need to. The others have just arrived. I'll let them know what is going on." He turned around and walked out the swinging doors of the med bay. I looked over at Batman.

I put my head in my hands and let my mind wander. This was all my fault. It should have been me. Batman pulled me out of the way so I didn't get bit. Idiot. He should have let me. I heal much faster than he does. I shook my head and looked at him again. Moron.

I don't know how much time had passed, but J'onn and Superman walked in. "He's getting ready to wake," J'onn said. I sat up, looking at Batman and sure enough he was beginning to wake up.

"The venom antidote, it's working," J'onn said when Batman opened his eyes.

"Welcome back. We were afraid we'd lost you," Superman gently said.

"Luthor and the others, what happened?" Batman asked. I rolled my eyes. He literally almost died and he is still worried about everything else.

"They got away, all but Copperhead," J'onn told him.

"I'm headed down to Striker's to interrogate him," Superman said.

"Alright. Let's go." Wait, what?

Batman sat up, very slowly. This idiot is still hurt. He shouldn't be leaving this bed at all. "Are you insane?" I said, standing up and finally making my presence known. "You shouldn't be leaving that bed for another day, let alone going to interrogate some weirdo in a snake suit." He only looked at me, and kept trying to sit up.

"She's right. You're staying here," Superman said gently pushing him back down. "That venom almost killed you."

"So?" I swear I might kill this man.

"So, you're staying here."

I could practically feel the glare that Batman was giving him, but Superman gave one right back. Superman walked out of the room. Looks like he had the last word.

Before he was even out the door, Batman was already unhooking his IV and standing up. I rolled my eyes at his stubbornness. Who were we kidding? He wasn't going to just sit this one out. I shared a look with J'onn and we both followed Batman out the doors silently.

Batman went straight for the computers and started furiously typing. I decided to stay silent. There was no use in trying to change his mind so I might as well just go with it.

"You really should be resting," J'onn said. Apparently he thought that he could change his mind. "I know this must be hard for you, feeling vulnerable." Oh no. J'onn please don't bring this up. "You're the only one of us without special powers," Oh dear lord. "But you don't need to prove yourself." Batman must have the most patience in the world, or he is simply ignoring him. "You're a valued member of this team and we're only trying to-"

Batman finally stood up and looked at him. "I'm taking the shuttle. Unless you want to try and stop me." He challenged.

I let out a sigh at the ridiculousness of this situation.

"No." was the only thing J'onn said before moving out of his way. Batman walked out of the room and headed towards the hangar.

"We need to work on your people skills," I said to J'onn as I followed Batman. I jogged down the hallway to catch up to him.

"Are you going to stop me?" He asked me without stopping.

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'. "I'm just coming with you." Batman stopped walking and gave me a look. "If you think for one second that I am letting you go down there and start fighting by yourself, then you're insane. All I'm going to do is make sure you don't collapse and die." I said, adding a slightly sarcastic smile.

Batman let out a huff, but didn't object. We walked to the hangar and got in the shuttle. We started it up and made our descent down to Earth. "So, where are we going?" I asked.

"We're following the tracker I put on Luthor. He's at an abandoned building."

"Oh. When did you put a tracker on him?" I asked, thinking back to the fight. He never got anywhere near Lex, except when he tackled him. Of course, I was met with silence.

The ride was fairly short and we arrived there in no time. Bats parked the shuttle and stepped out, with me behind him. We walked across the rooftop to an open window on ceiling. Batman outstretched his arm. "Hold on."

I walked over to him and grabbed his arm, but he only pulled me closer to him. He wrapped one of his grappling hooks across the beam and slowly lowered us down, him holding onto me, and I was tucked into his chest.

We quietly landed and looked around. Lining the one side of the wall were giant animals, at least 10 feet tall and they were all staring at us. I shuddered as I looked at them. "That is so creepy," I whispered.

Batman pulled out his tracking locater and looked at it. We walked over to where the signal was coming from. We looked over the ledge and saw all 6 of the bad guys playing poker down below.

"Well they don't seem busy," I said. I turned my head when I thought I heard something, and saw a blur of purple behind me. "Hey-"I started to say, but something hit my head. Hard. I saw stars in front of my eyes as I hit the floor. I heard another thud next to me but my head hurt too much for me to see what it was. The last thing I remembered before everything went black, was the sound of a cold, high pitched laugh that sent shivers down my spine.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I could hear voices. That's a good sign, right? It meant my brain wasn't squished. I mean, the voiced were muddled, but I could still hear them. I opened my eyes a fraction and I saw an orange light. I closed them again and tried to remember what happened.

Bats and I had left the Watch Tower and we followed the tracker to the abandoned building. I tried to remember what was after that, but all I remember is getting hit.

"Ah, I see pretty girl is waking up," I heard a high voice say. A hand reached under my head and wrenched it up, so that I was looking at the person in front of me. When I saw the face, my blood went cold.

"Joker," I whispered. I had never encountered him face to face before, but I had seen some of his work. No wonder Batman was never too happy. If I had a crazy clown wanting to kill me all the time, I wouldn't be happy either.

"Oh, so she knows who I am," He said walking behind me. I looked down and saw that my body was strapped to a metal slab, and the orange light was surrounding me. "But I know who she is. Miss Aquatica, is it not?" He said right next to my ear.

I turned my head away from him. "Don't touch me," I growled.

His high pitched laugh filled the room, "Oh, she is a feisty one."

"Enough Joker," Lex called out. I looked past Joker and saw that Lex, Humanite, and the others were gathered around as well. Oh great, we must be having a party. Joker walked back to where Luthor was standing.

"You're not going to leave them like this, are you?" Joker asked him, gesturing to the two of us. I glanced over at Batman and saw that he was in the same contraption as I was, except the light surrounding him was blue.

"Why?" He asked, catching my attention once more.

"Helloo? Their still alive," Joker growled. Um, excuse me? What is this 'they' you are speaking of? I've never done anything to you.

"And they are going to stay that way until I say we don't need them anymore." Luthor argued back.

"Lex, Lex, listen to someone who knows. Don't wait," He whispered in his ear and reached down to stroke the handle of Luthor's gun. "Do it now."

"You don't like my decisions? Leave!" Lex said, elbowing Joker in the ribs.

Joker rubbed his chest and walked away. "And they say, I'm crazy," He muttered. The rest of the villains all stared at Luthor.

"What? Those restraints are pure titanium!" He yelled, pointing at us. "They'll never get loose. And that stasis field around them will prevent the Martian from finding them. Plus the girl has a heat field around her, her powers are useless." Ah, so that's what the orange was. I was wondering why it was so warm in here.

Luthor stood in front of Batman. "Now Batman, you must have some kind of pass key or access code I can use against your friends. Where is it?" He asked, leaning very close to him.

"Guess," he said with a smirk. I looked him over and noticed that his belt was gone. Oh, the morons don't know what their getting themselves into, I thought.

"Grundy?" Luthor called. Grundy walked over holding Batman's belt. He tried sticking his fingers inside one of the compartments. Here we go. Electricity zapped him for a good thirty seconds, and when it was done, Grundy fell to the floor, his fingers twitching and smoke rolling off of him. Good thing he wasn't fully human, it probably would have killed him.

"I told you…" Joker sang.

"Shut up!" Luthor snapped. Wait, why weren't any of them asking me if I had a code?

"Ahem. Am I chop liver or something? How come nobody is asking me if I have a code or not?" I called out, a little annoyed that they didn't think I was that important.

Luthor turned around and gave me a smirk. "Don't worry. We already searched you," He said walking towards the doors. I felt a bit of a chill run up my body. Who the hell had touched me when I was unconscious? It better not have been Dracula reject over there, I'll hit him so hard I'll send him back to his castle. Luthor pointed at the belt, "Bring that upstairs. I'll get it open."

Star Sapphire carried the belt with her pink beam and everyone except Humanite and Grundy walked towards the elevator. "Humanite, Grundy," Luthor called out. "Watch them."

The doors to the elevator closed and it was only the four of us down in this basement. I squirmed a little bit, trying to get free but Luthor was right. These restraints must have been made of pure titanium because I could hardly move. Plus, the heat was making me feel a little weak. Not enough to actually hurt me, but enough that there was no way I could easily access my powers.

Grundy stood in front of Batman while Humanite stood in front of me, the both of them staring at us which was a little uncomfortable.

"Grundy, what's Luthor paying you for this?" Batman asked him.

"Money. Lots of it." He said. Oh poor Grundy. I did actually hate how people treated him. Sure he was a little stupid, but I feel like people use him just for his strength. It wasn't right. Or I just have a bleeding heart. I mean, what am I doing caring if supervillains were being treated nicely? I shook the thoughts out of my head and tuned back into the conversation.

"As much as he's getting?" Batman asked, turning his head towards Humanite.

"I don't know," Grundy said.

"Look at all you've had to put up with. You should be getting more." Batman told him.

"More than me? Preposterous." Humanite scoffed.

"Yeah, he needs all the money he can get to fix that giant head of his," I grumbled. Apparently he heard me because he gave me a rather nasty look.

Grundy must have realized that Batman was making some sense. Humanite had walked over to the desk and sat reading the newspaper. Grundy looked over at him and growled. He marched over and tackled Humanite onto the ground and started beating the crap out of each other. The two idiots rolled around on the floor, beating each other up, not realizing they had just been played.

"You are so brilliant," I said over to Batman. The fighting went on for another couple of minutes before the doors to the elevator opened and Luthor, Cheetah, Star Sapphire, and Dracula got off. Humanite and Grundy were still rolling around on the floor when Luthor yelled at them.

"Stop it, right now!"

Grundy got one last hit in before the two got off of each other. "You imbeciles are killing me faster than the kryptonite," He said walking over to them.

"Sorry," they both said and walked back to the back of the room, leaving Luthor to stand in front of us.

"You did this, didn't you?" Luthor asked Batman.

"How come he gets all the credit?" I scoff.

"Oh, I'm sure you had something to do with it too, don't kid yourself," Luthor said. "Well, it won't happen again. Cheetah!" Luthor called over his shoulder.

Cheetah walked over to us. "Take control over here. If our friends cause any more trouble, gag them!" Luthor said as he walked away. Cheetah took out her claws and hissed at us.

"Down kitty," I sneered. She only glared at me before walking over to sit at the desk that Humanite had been occupying. I closed my eyes and focused on a way to get us out of here. Not only is my head still throbbing, but these restraints are completely cutting off the circulation to my hands. I felt out to see if I could sense any water in the room, but I got nothing. Probably because of this heat shield they got me under.

Figuring that Bats would have to get us a way out of this, I closed my eyes and decided to doze for a few minutes. I opened my eyes when my brain finally registered that people around me were talking.

"And then what happened?" Batman said. I looked up and saw that he was talking to Cheetah, who had hopped off the desk and was now pacing.

"My research opened whole new worlds. There was so much to do."

"But so little funding."

"You know about that?" She asked him. I snorted, of course not. He probably has just as much money as Luthor does.

"You didn't have enough for research subjects so you used yourself."

"And now I'm a freak," she said, gesturing to her hair covered body. Yeah, just a little bit.

"That's not what I see." Wait, what? "I see someone who was willing to give up everything for a cause she believed in." Well if this isn't the biggest bunch of crap I had ever heard. Except it seemed that Cheetah was buying every word of it.

"How do you know so much about me?" She asked him.

"Let's just say cats aren't the only ones who are curious." I just threw up in my mouth a little bit, I'm serious.

She walked up and pressed herself against him, running her arm up his body. "Too much curiosity can be dangerous," She purred, putting her finger under his chin.

"Maybe…I like danger." Batman. What are you doing? Your voice isn't supposed to sound that sexy. It's supposed to be rough and scary.

"Do you?" she asked.

"Try me," Batman whispered. Now I was really worried, I had never heard his voice this gentle, at least when he was Batman and not Bruce.

Cheetah glanced over my way. "Think Ice Pop over there will mind?" Ice Pop? Who does this cat think she is?!

Bats glanced over at me, but didn't meet my eyes. "Why should she?" Apparently that was all Cheetah needed to hear, because the words had hardly left his mouth before they were lip locked. My jaw fell open and my stomach felt like it dropped out of my body. At first I was shocked, I mean who wouldn't be? Batman is kissing a girl covered in fur! It's a weird sight.

But then I noticed that the shock was being replaced with something else. Was it…was it jealousy? Judging by the way I was seeing red, and it wasn't from the heat field around me, and the way I wanted to rip her face off, I assumed it was jealousy. If my hands weren't locked into place, I'm pretty sure I could have ripped the metal off me and then beat the crap out of her.

I finally looked away and stared at the elevator doors, ignoring the both of them. I bit my lip and tried to calm myself down. Why was I this worked up? It shouldn't bother me. He's a grown man, he can kiss who he wants, I certainly don't have a say in it.

But you don't want him kissing other girls, the little voice in my head said. You want him kissing you. Did I? When did I start wanting that? When did I lose control of this whole situation? Of course I shouldn't care if he kisses other girls. I'm not his and he isn't mine, even though I kind of wanted him to be.

Where are these thoughts coming from?! I cannot like Batman. That is a biiiig no-no.

But look at how he treats you differently than the others. Think back to all the times he's helped you, and had those heart to heart conversations with you. You're special.

Shut up little voice! I opened my eyes and realized that the little voice was right. I thought I had been special. I wanted to be special, at least to him. I had no idea when these feelings started, but now I just knew they were there. And here he was, still kissing a cheetah girl.

I looked over to see her still attached to him when I finally cleared my throat. "Can you two stop sucking each other's faces off please? I would like not to have to puke everywhere."

The kissing noises stopped and I looked over. At least she was off of him now, although she was batting her eyelashes excessively at him. "No need to get so jealous sweetie," she purred. I narrowed my eyes, knowing that she was only trying to get a rise out of me.

"Oh, go play with a ball of string." I scoffed. Now it was her turn for her eyes to narrow at me. She stepped forward, releasing her claw, but before she could do any damage the elevator doors opened and Humanite stepped through.

"Luthor wants the girl upstairs. Then I'm relieving you of guard duty," He told Cheetah. He walked towards me and unlatched the wheels that were at the bottom of my restraints that I hadn't noticed before.

"This thing has wheels?" I asked him. Of course he ignored me. It seems that everyone does. He wheeled me over to the elevator and pressed the button. He didn't even have the decency to turn me around so I was facing the doors, instead I was facing the back wall. "What an interesting wall. Great quality." I sarcastically said. Again, no response.

The bell dinged and the elevator stopped. Humanite wheeled me over in front of a table in the middle of the room, then he walked away. Joker was sitting on top of a roll chair, wheeling himself around the room, smiling to himself. Good lord that man is creepy.

"As much as I like the change of scenery Lex, why did you bring me up here?" I asked him, trying to sound at least a little bored.

"How do you get into the Watch Tower?" He asked me. I rolled my eyes. Did he really think I was going to tell him?

"You know what Lex, I think I'll wait to give you that answer. But I better not wait too long, or else I'll only be talking to your headstone." I mocked. His eyes widened and I knew that I had officially pissed him off. Good.

"Ooooh, I like her," Joker cackled.

"Shut it!" Luthor said. "Fine, I'll find a way myself."

Luthor walked over to a panel and pressed some buttons. The lights in the room dimmed and the table that Batman's belt was sitting on sparked to life. The sparking got louder and louder until is suddenly stopped. At first I thought the shock to the belt didn't do anything, until there were some clicking noises and the compartments opened up.

"Finally," Luthor said. I was a little shocked that actually worked.

"Well Lex, I guess you aren't as dumb as you look," I said, trying to hide the fact that now I was a little nervous.

Both he and Joker rushed over to the table and shook the belt out. Tons of batarangs and bombs fell out, and I winced a little bit. Did they not realize that these were explosives?

"What are you looking for?" Joker asked him. "Bat-car keys, bat-breath mints?" Joker picked up a batarang and threw it at a nearby crate. Lex and I both looked at him, then at the batarang which began to spark. I smirked, knowing that it was one of the ones that gave off an electric charge. The batarang exploded, causing Joker to spin around in his chair and Lex to duck behind the counter.

"Careful you idiot!" He turned back to the belt. "Wait. This is it." He pulled out something from one of the smallest compartments.

"What?" Joker asked him, wheeling over to look at it.

"The key to our victory."

Or the key to the Watch Tower. That's what it actually is. And now these two have it. Great, just great. Lex looked up at me.

"Looks like we didn't need you after all, Aquatica."

"No, I guess you didn't. You might as well just let me go now. Sorry to bother you!" I said.

"Ah ah ah, we aren't done with you yet my dear," Joker said, rolling around behind me. He stood up and pulled a blade out from his jacket and pressed it up against my neck. "What else can you tell us?" He asked. I felt the bit of the blade pierce my neck, not causing any real damage, just enough to make a trickle of blood fall.

"Enough. I'll have someone take her back downstairs. We need to think of a plan." Luthor said.

Joker looked like he wanted to disagree, but he reluctantly put the blade away. Lex called Sapphire over and she took me back downstairs, wheeling me to my usual spot to the left of Bats.

Once she left it was fairly quiet. Humanite was back to reading his paper and I was back to ignoring Batman. At least, I was ignoring him.

"You're bleeding."

"I was bleeding. It's dry now. Joker didn't cut me that deep," I said, clipping my words a little bit so that he might get the hint that I was mad at him.

"He cut you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm surprised you noticed actually. I thought you would be sticking your tongue down someone else's throat, too busy to notice little old me." God I could be such a bitch sometimes.

"Aquatica," Batman sighed, using my hero name only because Humanite was still in the room.

"Don't. Don't say anything," I said, finally looking over at him. "Just find a way to get out of here because I am all done with today. I just want to go home and read my books. Is that so much to ask?" I practically yelled. I almost laughed at the comical look of disbelief on Batman's face, but then I remembered I was mad at him and I looked back at the wall.

Before he could say anything else, the elevator doors opened and our favorite purple suit wearing clown walked in. "Show time, everybody." He said, wheeling in a TV and what smelled to be popcorn. "Live and in color." He wheeled the TV over to where Batman and I were. "The end of the Justice League," he finished, gesturing to the TV screen.

"Don't make me laugh," Batman said.

Joker chuckled, "It's no joke! There's a surprise hidden in your little clubhouse," He said turning on the TV. The Watch Tower came into view. "And once your friends get there…kablooey!" He yelled, jumping in front of us and laughing. "Popcorn?" he asked us. We both only gave him a deadpanned look. "Oh, well, more for me." He threw a piece up in the air and caught it.

"Joker, you nauseate me," Humanite finally spoke up. Then he got up and left the room, leaving Joker by himself with the both of us. Smart.

"OH, he's going to miss the show…and the sequel."

Sequel? "What sequel?" Batman asked, thinking the same thoughts I was.

"After the bomb gets your friends…I get you. And her." He said pointing at me. Then he started laughing, but this wasn't his high pitched crazy laugh. This was his deep laugh, the laugh that meant he was being serious. Not gonna lie, I was starting to get a little worried. We had been here for God knows how long, with no clue as to what the others were doing. Were they even up there? Had they realized we were gone?

"Any second now," Joker sang. The words had no sooner left his mouth before a bright light enveloped the screen and we couldn't see the Watch Tower anymore. That is, until the light died down and we saw the Tower, looking just as it usually did.

"Oh, they ruined the punch line," Joker said sadly, staring at the screen.

"As impressive as that was, if you don't mind, we would like to get to our brooding alone please," I said.

"Oh no, I can still have my fun," He said, pulling his switchblade out of his jacket. "Shall I start with the lady first? We can pick up where we left off earlier." He started walking towards me while wearing his super creepy 'I'm crazy' smile.

"Don't touch her," Batman practically growled. Joker must have sensed just how upset he was making him.

"Alright, fine. I'll start with you, and then go to her," He said taking the blade off my neck and putting it to Bats'. I think it's hard to tell just how much of a badass someone is until a switchblade is put to their neck. I mean some people would wince and beg for him not to do anything, and then you have Batman. Who headbutts Joker so hard he knocks him back onto the floor.

"Not funny, Bats!" Joker grumbled while he stood back up. I had noticed the elevator doors opened and Grundy walked out. Before Joker could do anything else, Grundy grabbed his arm.

"Luthor not want you alone with him." He told Joker.

"Oh, come on, Grundy, old pal," Joker said, trying to sweet talk his way out of this. "What's a couple of nicks between friends?"

"Go away." I never thought I would say this, but thank you Grundy!

"Thanks. If you hadn't come along when you did…" wait, was that Batman? Saying thanks? For being saved? Hm. I thought he didn't thank people for being saved. Wait till Shay hears this one, he'll be getting shoulder punches for a week. "Could I have some water?" I perked up at the mention of water.

Grundy seemed to think about it for a minute before he agreed. He walked over to the sink and filled up a cup. He walked back over to Batman and held the cup up to his mouth so he could take a sip. Except he didn't take a sip. He spit it up in the air so that it hit the generator for the stasis field, causing it to short circuit.

I closed my eyes so the bright light didn't blind me, and opened them when it died down. Now the machine was sparking, but the stasis field was gone, meaning we now had a way out. "Thanks," Batman told Grundy.

"Uh-oh," Grundy said, realizing what he had just done. I really did feel bad for the guy.

"Grundy, it's okay," I told him. "We can help you. You don't have to work for Luthor anymore."

Grundy started backing up. "No, Grundy not listening to you anymore." He ran back to the elevator, probably to tell Luthor what he had done.

I sighed and shook my head. I noticed that Batman had been awfully quiet. I looked over and saw he had his eyes closed. "Have you talked to J'onn yet?"

"I just did."

"Good."

The room was filled with an awkward silence now.

"It didn't mean anything." Here we go.

"I'm sure."

"Evie…"

"No. Don't 'Evie' me!" I stage whispered. "It really isn't any of my business where your tongue goes. I don't care."

Bats looked at me like he wanted to say something, but the elevator doors opened before he could. Humanite stepped off, looking mighty happy about something. This wasn't good. He walked towards us and I noticed he was holding a yellow stick. He must have saw me looking at it. "Are you wondering what this is? It's an electrically charged phase stick. I can use it for when your Martian comes to save you. It doesn't matter if he's solid or not, it will still shock him."

"That sounds cool, mind if I give it a try?" I asked, hoping that he would be as dumb as Grundy was.

"Nice try." Damn.

I waited a few more seconds before speaking again. "Can I have some water?"

"NO!" Alright then.

"Well can you at least take my heat field down? Batman has his down! I'm pretty sure the law says that men and women must be treated equal in the workforce."

"That is enough. One more word out of you and you won't live to see the outside of this building," Humanite said, sticking his zap stick next to my face. Message received loud and clear. "That's better," he said when I didn't say anything else.

It had been quiet for a while, the only sound in the room was Humanite pacing.

"Batman, Aquatica…" I heard a voice whisper. I looked past Batman and saw J'onn phasing through the wall.

"J'onn don't!" we both yelled, but it was too late. J'onn had already flew over to help us, but Humanite got to him first. He was right, the stick did go through J'onn, even when he was phased, and electrocuted him. He hit the ground with a thud and didn't move anymore.

"He's gonna feel that in the morning," I mumbled.

Upstairs we could hear glass crashing and giant bangs, signaling that the rest of the League had arrived. "You might want to go check that out," I told Humanite. He only rolled his eyes but actually did walk over to the elevator.

"Remember our deal," he said before the doors closed. Deal? What deal?

"What is he talking about?" I asked Batman, but when I looked over, Bats was moving his arms, which should have been impossible if he were still tied down. Of course he would figure out how to get undone. God forbid anybody else save him.

"I made a deal with him. Don't worry, everything is taken care of," He said. With a giant click, the titanium straps came undone and he landed on the floor.

"Great, you're out. Now get me out, I can't feel my hands," I said while squirming around.

"Not yet. Just wait another minute."

I stopped squirming. "Excuse me?" I never did get an answer because Bats literally disappeared. I don't' understand how he does it. "Oh, you are so dead. When I get out of here you better run, because I honestly might try to drown you." I said, knowing that he could still hear me.

Before I could fully curse him, the elevator doors opened and Joker stepped off, and of course he was holding a gun, because why wouldn't he? He ran off the elevator but stopped when he saw that it was only me down here and Batman was gone.

"What?" He yelled, then looked at me. "Where is he?"

"If he's smart, he's halfway to mars right now."

Joker turned around, sweeping his eyes (and gun) across the room. While he was turned around, Bats somehow magically appeared behind him. Joker turned around and was face to face with him. He raised his gun up but it was easily knocked away. The gun clattered to the ground. Then Joker tried to punch Bats, which didn't work too well. Batman blocked his punch and countered with one of his own, sending Joker back towards me.

"No fair! How'd you get free?"

"I could have escaped anytime, but I thought I'd stick around to keep an eye on you clowns." Oh really? He could have escaped at any time? Please, tell me more and try to explain why you left me here all day. Now I was super pissed.

Bats punched Joker one more time leaving him super disoriented. "You're despicable," Joker said before falling to the ground, out cold. Bats smirked and then looked at me. Needless to say, he must have seen how pissed I was.

"You could have gotten out at any time?" I asked

"Yeah, the mechanism wasn't that hard to pick," He said walking over to me. I didn't say anything and just let him undo my restraints. There was a click and I slid to the floor, landing on my feet. I wobbled for a second and looked at my hands, which were alarmingly pale from the lack of blood.

"You really weren't kidding about the circulation," Batman said, taking one of my hands. "You should be fine, although your hands may tingle for a bit." He dropped my hand and knelt next to Joker, putting handcuffs on him, and took a hold of his collar.

"Can we go now?" I asked, gesturing towards the elevator. Bats dragged Joker along on the floor, and I took that as my answer. We made it upstairs and saw that the rest of the idiots were being handcuffed and locked up.

"There you are!" Superman said when he saw us. Everyone looked over at us.

"We're fine," I said, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

"Batman walked over to the swat officers, and handed them Joker. They put him in the back of the transportation vehicle along with the rest of them. Humanite was the last one out, and when he walked past us he asked to wait.

"You'll keep our bargain?" He asked Batman. Oh, so this must have been what he said before he went upstairs.

"Yes. Double what Luthor was paying." Was all Batman said. Humanite looked pleased and seemed to eagerly want to go back to prison. Double what he was paying? Holy crap that is a lot of money.

"What was that all about?" Flash asked. He only got a small smirk in response. I rubbed my hands, trying to get the blood to flow back in them.

"Can someone take me back to Gotham? I do not feel like flying all the way back tonight," I said.

Shay looked like she was about to answer but Batman did instead. "I will." I looked at him for a second before nodding, figuring it was best not to question him. He pressed a button on his belt, which he must have gotten back, and the batmobile came around the corner and parked right in front of us.

"Alright. Bye guys!" I said, limply waving my hand to the rest of the League. I turned around and climbed into the car, and laid my head back on the headrest. The driver's door opened and Batman got in. He started the car and took off, heading towards Gotham.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to talk. I think I did enough talking for the day. I certainly wasn't in the mood for it now.

"I never did thank you." Okay, never mind then.

"Thank me for what?" I asked, my head still resting against the seat and my eyes closed.

"For stopping that bullet."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. I thought he had forgotten about that.

"Well I never thanked you."

Now it was his turn to look confused. "For what?"

I chuckled, "For keeping Copperhead from biting me. Don't think I didn't notice how you pulled me out of the way. It should have been me."

He didn't say anything at first. "I was just protecting you, just like you did for me," he finally said.

I nodded my head, knowing he was right. "How's your hands?" he asked.

I looked at them and saw that they weren't as pale as before, but they were still tingling. "Better than before. I'll be fine. Don't worry." I looked back out the window and watched the street lights go past.

"You know, she wasn't that good of a kisser." I whipped my head around so fast I swear I heard something crack. He knew what he said, the jerk. He was even smiling. He looked over at me and practically laughed. "She had too much fur."

I lost it, I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face, my bad mood instantly disappearing. "Oh my God, that's hilarious," I said wiping a tear from my face. I calmed down and looked back over at him. "Why did you kiss her though?"

To his credit, he did look a little uncomfortable. "I was just trying to distract her. To be honest, I didn't think it would go that far." Seeing he was uncomfortable I looked back out the window. "Besides, I would rather that happen with someone else." I didn't even have to look at him to know that he had a smirk on his face. I closed my eyes and smiled, hoping that the 'someone else' he was speaking of, might be me.


	12. A Knight of Shadows

Hello everyone! Thank you so much to those who have reviewed the story and messaged me, it really means a lot. Please keep sending in your reviews, whether or not they are just to let me know that you like it, or if you want to see anything specific. I will try my best to work with you.

I did have one question come up. Someone asked me if I was going to do the episodes "Kids Stuff" and "This Little Piggy" and the answer is yes! I am definitely planning on doing both of these episodes, but they obviously won't come until later.

Just a heads up, I'm probably go straight to "Savage Time" and just skip "Metamorphosis". I didn't really like that episode and I am super pumped to be getting to season 2 already.

Thanks so much for sticking with the story! 3 Don't forget to review!

Chapter 12- A Knight of Shadows

I don't understand how I always let myself get dragged into situations. I never thought I was a pushover, but I guess I am. At least when it comes to one person.

I was lying in bed, hoping to get a few hours of sleep. I didn't think that was such a hard thing to ask for, considering that I had worked a double monitor shift the day before. I hadn't even gotten a full 5 hours of sleep before my communicator woke me up.

"This better be super important," I growled into it, mentally cursing the person who dared to wake me up.

"I wouldn't say it's super important, but you should get down here."

Of course, only Batman would be brave enough to wake me up early.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed and blindly stumbled around my room looking for a fairly clean uniform, knowing that if he was waking me up it had to be something somewhat important. "What happened?"

I could hear his car engine roar in the background so I figured that he was on his way to the scene. "Another antique bookstore was broken into. That's the third one this week."

As I was hopping around in the dark trying to get my leggings pulled up, I recalled the earlier cases. "That's right. They were broken into but nothing was taken."

"We should investigate it some more. Hurry up, I'm downstairs."

"Wait, what?" I asked him, walking over to the window and looking out. Sure enough his Batmobile was parked outside of my apartment building. "Seriously?"

I heard Bats sigh on the other end. "Just hurry up," He said before he shut off the com link. I rolled my eyes, pulled my hair up into a ponytail and double timed it so that I was downstairs within the minute. I walked over to the car and opened up the passenger door.

I had no sooner closed the door before we were off, heading towards downtown Gotham. "Took you long enough. I was afraid one of your neighbors was going to see us," Bats said, glancing over to me.

"Bats, it's 2 in the morning. No one is looking out their windows. They are all asleep, like I should be."

Bats only chuckled before he parked the car. "We're here." We both go out and walked over to the side of the building. Without asking permission, he grabbed my waist and pulled me close to him before he used one of his grappling hooks to shoot to the top of the building.

Once we landed he walked away like nothing happened, but I actually had to catch my breath for a minute. Whether it was from going so fast, or just being in close contact with him, I wasn't sure.

Once I got my slamming heartbeat under control, I walked over to the skylight to see that one of the windows was already pushed opened. I gently slid through the window and landed silently on my feet.

All around me were discarded books and scraps of paper littering the floor. Someone really was looking for something. I walked over to where Batman was shining a light on one of the books that was on the table. I walked up next to him and peered around his arm to look at the book. "The Philosophers Stone," He said. What the heck is that?

"According to legend, it was a gem from the hilt of Excalibur and the true source of the Sword's fabled power," A man's voice broke the quiet. I looked past Batman and saw a tall man opening the door to the room. He was built quite like Batman, with a muscular body and broad shoulders. I found it a little odd that the man had a streak of white running through the rest of his dark red hair, but I didn't think too much of it.

I immediately wondered who he was, but I also noticed that Bats hadn't chucked a Batarang at this guy, so I assumed he knew him.

"Hello, Jason." Ah, so his name was Jason.

"Who's Jason?" I whispered over to him. The man must have noticed me because he smiled and nodded, but he didn't say anything.

"He's an acquaintance of mine," Batman quietly said to me. "I assume you're not here to browse," he said louder. Jason walked towards us.

"I'm a friend of the owner."

"You mean that old man?" Batman asked him. I recalled the old man that was being loaded into the ambulance when we first got here.

"He's 32 years old," Jason said, looking too serious for my liking. I glanced over at Bats to see that he was wearing the same surprised look that I had on my face.

"He's also an expert in Arthurian Law," Jason continued.

"Arthurian law?" I asked. I had never heard that term used before.

"What's this all about?" Batman asked him, holding out the book he was holding.

"Morgaine Le Fay," Jason said. I raised my eyebrow, not quite believing what I was hearing. "When Camelot fell, Merlin was able to hide the Philosopher's stone from her." Jason turned towards the bookshelf. "Now she's returned to track it down again."

It was quiet for a few seconds as Bats and I tried to take this story in. He finally broke the silence, "Impossible."

"Yeah, I agree. Merlin was a character in a book I read as a kid. He isn't actually real," I said crossing my arms.

"You of all people should know better," Jason said looking at the both of us. He seemed tired all of a sudden, as if he had told the story many times before and was exhausted.

I guess Bats wanted to play into the story. "Why does she want the gem?" he asked.

"With it she can resurrect Camelot and place her son Mordred on the throne."

I snorted and the two men looked at me. "What? You both actually believe in this stuff? This is a fairytale. I used to read these books as a kid, it isn't real."

I could tell that what I was saying was ticking Jason off a little bit. "Okay…how close is she to finding this Philosopher's stone?" Batman said, trying to diffuse the tension that had built up.

"Too close," He said, sounding more serious than ever. I couldn't believe that both men were actually taking this serious. "I have a way of finding her, if you both would help me." He started walking out of the building leaving only Batman and I standing inside.

We stood in silence for a few minutes before Bats looked at me. "So, are you going with us?"

I scrunched my face up in confusion. "Wait, you actually believe in this story?" I asked him.

"It isn't too hard to believe. Look at Diana. She comes from a land where the Greek gods are real. Why wouldn't a place like Camelot exist?"

Damn the man and his sound logic. "So, are you coming with me or are you going to go back to bed?" he asked me, smirking.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Well I'm certainly not going to let you travel around the world with a crazy person by yourself." I huffed out, stomping towards the doors. I heard a small chuckle and smiled to myself. It's always nice when he lightens up a little bit.

We walked outside and went over to Jason, who was leaning up against the building. "Morgaine is in England," was all Jason said. Bats and I looked at each other before shrugging. Why did I feel like this was about to get a lot more interesting?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After a couple hours of really cramped spaces, Bats not letting me turn on some music, and awkward silences, we finally made it to a castle in England. I immediately jumped out of the jet and cracked my back. It was painfully obvious that the jet was made for only two people, certainly not three. Actually Bats probably built it thinking that only he would be in it. Oh well.

We walked up towards the castle and opened the huge doors. I'm not gonna lie, the castle was beautiful. The dark stones did look a little creepy in the low light, but I was in awe over the knight armors that lined the walls. Bats and Jason went in first and I trailed behind them, looking around at everything.

At the end of the hallway there was what appeared to be a white marble crypt raised up on a platform. I followed the boys up to it and stood there, placing my hand on the cold stone. Jason and Bats nodded to each other before standing on either side of the crypt and opening the lid.

We all peered inside and saw that nothing was there. "Well, as fun as that was can we go home now?" I asked them, desperately wanting to get some sleep. As usual I was ignored, but then I saw why. Jason had put his hand on the bottom of the crypt, almost like he was looking for something. The stone around his hand started glowing with a golden light. I blinked, just thinking that in my sleep deprived state I was seeing things.

"She's been here, but she doesn't have the stone yet," Jason said.

"How can you be sure?" Batman asked him.

Before anyone could answer him, the door to the room slammed shut. We all three whipped around. "I thought we were by ourselves," I said.

"We are," Bats said, taking a small step forward. Suddenly, the golden light that we had just seen with Jason was surrounding all of the swords and axes on the walls.

"Great," I mumbled, pulling out my staff. Suddenly the swords flew off the wall and headed straight for us.

"Get down!" Bats yelled at us as he pushed both Jason and I off the platform. I pushed Jason out of my way as I flipped over and landed on my feet. I turned around and saw that the swords were embedded in the floor right where we were standing seconds before. "Jason, the door!"

Jason ran towards the door as Batman started fighting the flying swords with a sword of his own. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a sword coming straight for me. I jumped up and hit the sword with my staff, causing it to embed itself in the wall up to the hilt.

I heard Jason struggling with the door, but I couldn't stop to help him. More and more swords were coming towards my head and quite frankly, my head is more important than the door. Eventually Batman and I were back to back, fighting against the different sharp objects that were now flying around the room.

"Do you believe in the stories now?" Batman yelled over his shoulder. Seriously? Was he trying to tell me that he was right he whole time?

"Is now the time for this?" I yelled back. Deciding that my staff wasn't going to be enough, I tried freezing the knight's feet to the ground. But then that would have been too easy. These things must have been stronger than I thought, because a foot of ice wasn't even slowing them down. They just kept going. I backed up to the door where Batman and Jason were already standing.

A herd of about twenty knights was slowly making its way towards us. "Does anybody have any ideas to get out of this alive?" I asked.

Jason threw his axe and imbedded it in one of the knight's chest, but that didn't even slow it down. "There are too many of them," He yelled.

Gee, thanks for the pep talk. Batman ran forward and started fighting the knights again. This idiot is going to look like he just got out of a cheese grater by the time they are through with him.

And of course I couldn't just let him do it by himself. I ran forward trying to stop them with a combination of my staff and my ice, but nothing was working. I heard a loud thud and looked over to see that one of the knights had punched Bats in the face, sending him across the room and into a column.

"Bats!" I yelled. I had taken my eyes off the knight I was fighting for just a second, but that was enough because an iron grip was on my arm and it tossed me across the room and right into Batman.

I ended up landing right on top of him, both of us collapsing to the floor in a groaning heap. I picked my head up and looked at him. "Sorry," I said trying to untangle my limbs from his.

"Are you okay?" He asked, slowly picking himself up off the floor.

Before I could answer, Jason's voice rang across the room. "Gone, gone, the form of man, rise the demon Entrigan."

"What the hell is he going on about," I groaned, holding my head. Suddenly a bright light filled the room. Bats and I looked up at Jason who was now shrouded in the light. He let out a yell as he transformed into…well I guess some type of monster. His human appearance faded and he now had yellow skin, bright red, glowing eyes, horns on top of his head, and long nails and teeth. Truthfully, he looked terrifying.

In a final burst of flames, he finished his transformation and was now dressed in a red suit with a purple cape. He must have been infinitely stronger because he was now throwing the knights around like they were paper dolls. I looked up at Batman and saw that he looked just as shocked as I did.

"I take it you didn't know your friend turned into a demon?" I asked. The only answer I got was a shake of his head. Great.

"Inferno!" Jason, or rather Entrigan, yelled and flames burst from his palms. I could feel the heat wash over me, and I noticed that Batman had tried shielding me from it as much as he could, which I was grateful for. I could instantly feel the heat affecting me and he must have realized that.

I looked up at the knights, but instead only a pile of ashes laid on the ground. Thinking the coast was clear, Batman stood up and pulled me onto my feet. He was facing the column behind me and couldn't see the knight coming up behind him, raising his axe up.

My eyes widened as I pulled Bats to the side, just as the axe struck the stone right where his head just was. Before either of us could react, another burst of flame overcame the knight and it was turned to a pile of dust.

Looking around we both saw that the room was cleared of any flying sharp objects and knights, so we relaxed a second. Batman shot me a look, silently asking me if I was alright. I gave him a small nod, which he returned.

He turned to Entrigan, who was now walking past us. "Entrigan? You could have warned me." He said. He seemed calm, but I could tell he was a little irked that he didn't know one of his friends could turn into a fire spewing monster.

Entrigan walked over to the pile of ashes on the floor and ran his hands through it. "That witch will pay for this." He growled. His voice, I noticed, was much deeper now. It sounded more like a growl and as if it hadn't been used in a long time. "I'll feast on her cold heart."

"Charming," I grimaced, just picturing that scene in my head.

"If the stone's as powerful as you say…we're going to need help."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After explaining to the rest of the League about what happened, it didn't take very long before Diana, Flash, and J'onn arrived in front of the castle in the Jet. Once everyone was settled down, Entrigan started telling us his story.

"You say you've been trailing Le Fay for centuries?" Diana asked him.

"In an unending game of cat and mouse," Entrigan said. I sat down on the rock that Flash was sitting on and threw my arm over his shoulders. "For the past generation she has hidden from me. But I'll never rest until her soul burns in the eternal pit!"

Flash leaned over to me. "And I thought Bats was creepy." I stifled a laugh, but apparently Entrigan heard us, because he immediately got in our faces, well, more in Flash's face than mine.

He let out a low growl and turned around. Batman only shot us disapproving looks before asking Entrigan how she had eluded him for so long.

"The witch has an amulet which can sense when I'm drawing near." He explained.

"With that stench, who needs an amulet?" Flash muttered. I slapped his arm, but Entrigan heard him again. He grabbed Flash off the rock, knocking me over in the process, and held him up in the air.

"What?!" He said.

"Nothing," Flash squeaked.

I thank God for J'onn every day because he always knows how to diffuse a situation. He walked over before Flash could get pummeled into the ground and calmly talked to the demon. "Perhaps you should consider another approach."

Flash was thrown to the ground as I picked myself up off the ground and brushed the dirt from my jacket. I let out a huff and crossed my arms, still wishing that I was in my bed.

"And what do you suggest?" Entrigan asked J'onn.

"I could try to locate her telepathically." Huh, that wasn't a bad idea. At least it was better than the rest of us not being able to do anything against magic. Have I ever said how much I hated magic? Because I really, really do.

J'onn closed his eyes and we let him do his mind search thing. After a few moments he opened his eyes and they were glowing a bright orange. I always hated it when he did that. Besides his green blue skin, it was easy to forget that J'onn wasn't from this world. He had quickly grown to learn our ways and customs, I was so proud of him.

Suddenly J'onn screamed and held his head for a second, before pitching forward and laying on his stomach, unmoving. We all rushed forward to help him, but we weren't quite sure what to do.

"What happened?" I cried, looking at Entrigan. He seemed to be the only one here who actually knew what was going on.

"The witch, she must have tapped into his mind instead." He snarled, looking rather pissed off.

"Alright, and what do we do to stop it?" I yelled back, the worry for my friend completely taking over my rational emotions.

"I think I can try something. But we need to get him out of here." Enrigan said, before stepping forward and grabbing onto J'onn's head.

"Alright, we'll load him up to the jet and let him rest there," Diana said. "Batman and Flash, you carry him. Evie, go start the jet."

Now usually I hate being bossed around, but this was important so I did what I was told to do. I sprinted over to the jet's hatch and started hitting the start-up sequence. Within minute J'onn was lying in a seat and we were all hovering over him.

Entrigan opened his eyes and said that he would be waking up soon. The words had barely left his mouth when J'onn started stirring. We all leaned forward, eager to make sure that our resident Martian was alright.

I let out a sigh of relief when I saw his eyes open and he glanced up at all of us. I backed away from the seat and paced the room, holding my hands together so they would stop shaking. You would think that being surrounded by superheroes all the time, I would get used to seeing them get hurt, but it had never really happened to J'onn. Sure Bats got hurt all the time and even Flash would come back with a few bruises every now and then, but J'onn was always the person who kept us calm in those situations. Without him I would constantly be a bundle of nerves half the time.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Flash grabbed my arm and led me over to the rest of the group. "You alright?" He asked me quietly. I only nodded and squeezed his arm, letting him know not to worry about me. He patted my head like he usually does and let out a small chuckle.

"Did you locate Le Fay?" Batman asked him.

"No. But I did sense she hasn't found the stone yet." He said, sounding unusually sad. I decided I would ask him about it later.

"Thank Hera for that," Diana said. I rolled my eyes at her ever common habit of thanking specific Gods.

"Before she lashed out at me, I heard the words 'archeologists' and 'castle'."

"It's a start," Bats said, turning towards the computer on the jet.

I followed him, figuring I should help somewhere. "Okay, let's say that all this magic stuff is real. Wouldn't the old castles have been excavated by now?"

"Yeah, they would have been. Let me see if I can find those records," Bats said while furiously typing. Haha! I was able to help the worlds' smartest detective! Today just got a lot better!

I perched myself on the edge of the control panel, my butt far away from any buttons that could cause us to crash. I just looked out at the clouds and the moonlight reflecting off of them.

"Don't trust the Martian," A deep voice sounded next to me. I jumped and whipped my head to the side. I was so deep in my thoughts that I hadn't heard Entrigan come up and sit in the copilot's seat. He was sitting backwards in it, resting his arms over the back of the seat. "He's been tainted by the witch."

"Let us worry about that," Batman said without taking his eyes off the road. Well, I guess in this case it was the sky. Whatever.

"Heed me. She will tap into your deepest desires, then dangle them like a carrot in front of your nose. She will give you everything you dream of, but only until she gets what she wants," Entrigan growled.

"The voice of experience?" Bats asked, quirking an eyebrow up at his friend. I let out a small laugh until Entrigan growled at me, which quickly shut me up. What? The guy is really creepy. It's like Bats to the trillionth power.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he said, looking more like a toddler who had been scolded than a demon from hell.

The rest of the trip was fairly quiet. Entrigan moved to the back of the jet and I took the vacated seat. Stretching, I put my feet up and leaned back for a few minutes, figuring that a little bit of sleep wouldn't hurt.

"You really need to figure out a sleep schedule. Being this tired all the time going to start affecting your missions."

I turned my head towards Batman but kept my eyes closed. "Not all of us are nocturnal you know. I can't just sleep during the day. Some of us have things to do."

"Trust me, I know," he said, sounding a little frustrated. I only hummed in agreement. It must be hard running a multibillion dollar company while being a super hero. I wouldn't know, I could barely afford my rent each month.

"Are we there yet?" I whined, knowing that I sounded like a child but not really caring.

Bats let out a huff and rolled his eyes. "Actually, yes. We are."

"Oh good!" I said sitting up and stretching, my back letting out a few pops and creaks. "Where exactly is here?"

"The home of Henry Moss. Once we land, Diana and Flash will go to Hickman's mansion."

After a few more minutes we had landed the jet in a field across form Moss' house and Diana and Flash went their own way. I turned to J'onn to ask him a question, but I noticed that Entrigan was nowhere to be seen.

"Um, guys? Where's our resident Demon?"

Both of them looked around and noticed he was gone. Great, now we have a demon running loose. What else? Is the loch ness monster going to come over and have a pool party? Or should we invite a yeti over for tea?

Suddenly a barking dog shattered the silence of the night. We all shared a look before quickly running over to the house. Well, Bats and I ran, J'onn flew. Right before we got inside we could hear Entrigan let out a heart-stopping roar, which only caused us to move faster.

By the time J'onn phased through the wall and Bats and I ran in through the open patio door, Henry Moss was lying on the floor clutching his heart, and a tail was seen running out of the room.

"What did you do?" Batman practically growled at him as J'onn knelt down and looked at the poor man.

"He probably scared the poor dog half to death," I said, glaring at Entrigan. He looked like he was about to retort before J'onn interrupted him.

"He's in shock, but he'll recover," He said putting his hand to the man's neck.

"Why bother with him? He'll pass on in a few years anyway," Entrigan said, not even caring.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe we should bother because he does have a few years left to live. That seems like a pretty good reason to me!

I stepped forward to give him a piece of my mind, but Batman stepped forward too and grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him and he silently told me not to start anything. I huffed, but backed off anyway. He was probably right. Starting a fight now would only make this whole mission harder.

While I was contemplating how I was going to wring Entrigan's neck, J'onn had knelt down again and placed his hand on Moss' head. "He has no knowledge of the stone. The relic is not here."

I jumped as Entrigan smashed a nearby lamp with his hand. "Blast!" he exclaimed. He took a breath and looked over at us. "If Moss doesn't have it, then maybe Hickman does."

I just hoped that Flash and Diana were having better luck than we were. "Well, now what do we do?" I asked.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I hate that I asked. Because now, instead of being in a nice and warm home, where there were couches I could crash on…I was now sitting on a cold metal beam 5 stories in the air with a bat and a demon.

It was Batman's decision to sit up here and wait for Le Fay to possibly show up. I must admit, his plan was pretty smart. J'onn would morph himself to look like Moss and the rest of us would be waiting up here. That way, if Le Fay did show up, we would (hopefully) be able to grab her and get on with our lives.

So here I was, legs dangling from a beam high up in the air drawing little ice pictures in the air. Bats had the only pair of binoculars so I was left with nothing to do but wait.

"I still don't trust that Martian," Entrigan said. "He's damaged goods."

I could practically feel my blood boiling when he said that. My ice drawing shattered like glass and both men looked at me.

"Don't you dare say another word about J'onn. He has done so much for this team, and he has sacrificed so many things in order to try and do some good in the world. How dare you judge him? If you want to go mope around about a psycho ex-girlfriend, then fine, but don't get pissed off because J'onn can handle her tricks and you couldn't.

My chest was heaving from not taking a single breath during my entire tirade and I was still breathing heavily. Entrigan looked like he wanted to throw me off this tower, but Batman looked like he was fighting back a smirk. After another few moments, I calmed down enough to go back to my previous position on the beam.

"I'd trust J'onn with my life." Batman said. That was high praise coming from him, seeing as he didn't trust that many people.

"I'll send flowers," Entrigan muttered. I quickly stood up again, seriously thinking about throwing him off this tower, but movement in the house caught our eyes instead.

"Looks like it's go time," I said hopping onto a disc. Entrigan leaped from the beam, catapulting himself through the front window of the house, while Bats used a grappling hook to swing down. I was the last one in the house, where I landed gracefully on the carpet and took in the scene around me.

J'onn was on the floor and a young child and a woman was standing in the other doorway. At least, I'm assuming it was a woman because I couldn't really see her face. She was wearing a giant, golden mask and a long purple dress, while her son sported a blonde bowl cut and a light purple medieval outfit with a matching hat.

The woman raised her hands above her head and a golden electricity gathered around them. We had a split second to jump out of the way before her hands came down and the electricity shot out to where we were. Entrigan jumped in one direction while Bats and I jumped to the other side.

"Burn witch!" Entrigan yelled, shooting his own magic out of his hands, which Le Fay easily blocked.

"Still so bitter, my love?" She asked him, before shooting more magic at him. This time it actually hit him, knocking him off his feet.

Bats and I stood up at the same time and she turned to us. He threw a batarang at her the same time I threw an ice dagger at her. She blocked it with her forcefield like it was a bug hitting a windshield.

"My'ria'h!" J'onn said, reaching for something in front of him, but nothing was there. My heart sank as I realized that Entrigan might have been right. J'onn was still under her control.

"J'onn! Snap out of it!" Bats yelled, but the distraction cost him. With another blast of magic, Le Fay managed to hit Bats who soared in the air and landed directly on Entrigan. The force of the impact knocked both of them through the brick wall, where they laid on the lawn unmoving.

"Come," Le Fay said, gesturing to her son. "What we seek is obviously not here." She started to glow and levitate off the floor but I had different plans for her.

"You aren't going anywhere lady!" I yelled, sending a wave of ice over top of her. It covered both her and her son in a block of ice, and at first I thought it would hold, but my excitement was shot down as soon as golden cracks appeared in the ice.

A second later it shattered, sending ice shards all over me. I covered my face to make sure it wouldn't be impaled, and when I looked up Le Fay was standing over me.

"You froze my son," was all she said before she wrapped her magic around me and levitated me up to the ceiling. Once my head hit the wood, I could feel the magic squeezing me. At first it was uncomfortable but it quickly became a major pain. Within seconds I couldn't breathe and it felt like a fire was in my chest.

I heard a few sharp crack and I realized that she had squeezed me so hard my ribs broke. I couldn't scream but the pain was absolutely unbearable. The last thing I remembered was the ground rushing towards me, another sickening crack, and the blackness that enveloped me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Have you ever had cotton stuffed into your ears? Probably not because that is kind of weird, but if you have you know that everything sounds very muffled. Almost like you are under water. That's how I felt know. My entire body was sore and it seemed like a struggle to open my eyes.

I could faintly hear voices around me but I couldn't figure out who it was. I really couldn't figure out where I was either. The last thing I remember was falling. I took a deep breath and my entire torso felt like it was on fire. I snapped my eyes open and quickly sat up, the pain becoming worse.

"Evie!" a voice said and suddenly hands were on my shoulders, pushing me back down. I looked up and saw that is was J'onn who was standing over me. "Evie, lie back down," He insisted, making sure I was completely in the bed before releasing me. I looked around and realized that we were back at the Watchtower.

"What happened?" I asked, looking at my wrapped up ribs and wrist.

"Le Fay happened," a growl came from next to me. I looked over and on the bed next to me was Bats. My cheeks immediately turned red when I noticed he didn't have a shirt on, he only had bandages on his ribs. I quickly looked away from him, but not before I caught the small smirk on his face. Jerk.

"So doc, how bad is it?" I asked J'onn.

"6 cracked ribs, 2 broken ones, a fractured wrist and bruises covering your whole body," He said. Ouch. No wonder I was so sore.

I nodded over to Bats. "How bad is he?"

"2 cracked ribs and a concussion," Bats said, trying to sit up.

"Ha! I beat you," I teased him, sitting myself back up and grabbed the water bottle that was on the table next to my bed. I immediately started chugging it and I could feel my body healing itself. With injuries this bad it would take another day before I was completely healed, but this would at least help.

"You heal faster," He mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his head. I smirked and finished the bottle.

"I am truly sorry," J'onn said, looking at the both of us.

"What for?" Bats and I asked at the same time.

"I hesitated in battle and it nearly cost you your life," He said and my heart broke at how ashamed he looked. "Perhaps Etrigan is right, perhaps I have been tainted by that sorceress. I know what I experienced was a mere illusion. But it felt so real. The urge to embrace it was almost more than I could bear. Sometimes I believe that I would do anything to see my loved ones again," he rambled, grief saturating his voice. "You can't imagine how that feels."

I saw the dark look that crossed Bats' face and I decided to speak up, knowing that he wouldn't. "Trust me J'onn, we've all lost things. Don't think of yourself as weak because you miss your family. I would do anything to see mine again." I said, fully standing up and patting his shoulder. "Any of us would."

J'onn looked so relieved that I had said that, but ever the stoic, he straightened himself up and walked out of the room. I stood up, looking for my jacket. I noticed Bats was still sitting on the bed, looking at where J'onn was just standing. Mentally sighing, I figured I should help him out of his funk.

I found the rest of his uniform and threw it at him, letting it hit his face and hang off his mask. I giggled at how ridiculous he looked. He pulled the shirt off of him and looked over at me confused.

"Well I know that you aren't going to lie in bed despite your ribs hurting like hell. I figured I might as well get you out of bed. Actually be useful for once." I teased while putting on my own jacket. My ribs still hurt but it only felt like they were bruised now, and no longer broken. I heard him chuckle and I turned back around to see that his shirt and cape were back on. He looked fairly stiff, but I knew that wouldn't stop him.

I walked past him to head out the door but he grabbed my wrist, stopping me. "Thanks," he said while looking down at the ground. I smiled a bit, but figured I wouldn't push my limit with how much emotion I could get out of him in a single day.

I only nodded and offered him a small smile. His lips twitched and he held my wrist a minute longer before dropping it. We both walked side by side in a comfortable silence down the hallway and towards the control center.

J'onn was staring at one of the monitors. I looked around and noticed that no one else was here. "Where is everyone?" I asked him.

"Diana and Flash are at Hickman's house still. Le Fay found them but she doesn't have the stone. Entrigan went down to help."

Ah. Well at least they were able to keep her occupied. On one of the monitors we saw the jet coming into the hangar. Hopefully they followed the plan and got the stone to bring back up here where the crazy witch lady couldn't get it.

Bats and I followed Diana, Flash and Entrigan to the containment unit. Flash took out a rectangular shaped stone and set it inside. I was a little disappointed with how it looked. I thought a stone of this power would be decked out in gold or something. Not a rock you can find at a construction site.

The stone was placed inside the stasis field and the vault door closed. Flash sealed it with his handprint and took a step back. "Ha! I'd like to see her try to get it now," He said while dusting off his hands.

"Be careful what you wish for, little man," Entrigan said.

Uh oh. "Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine?" Flash asked, turning around to face the demon. "As far as I'm concerned, this mission's over. The world's safe again and I for one, I'm gonna kick back," he finished brushing past all of us and probably heading towards the kitchen. "So go find some other house to haunt," He called over his shoulder as he left the room.

I rolled my eyes at his childish antics but stayed fairly silent. "He didn't mean that," Diana told Entrigan.

"Do you think I care?" He asked her raising an eyebrow, or what I assumed was an eyebrow. I'm not sure this form of him had any hair. Entrigan sauntered off to God knows where in the tower, and Diana left in a bit of a huff.

This only left Bats and I in the room. I thought about what Flash had said, and it didn't see right to me. "Is it me, or does this day seem far from over?" I asked, staring at the vault.

It was silent for a minute and I thought Bats had left, but he eventually replied. "No, I don't think it is either."

I groaned and walked out, knowing that there was some work to be done in the Tower. Diana, Bats and I regrouped in one of the storage rooms and started bringing containers out in order to start taking an inventory.

Entrigan was perched on one of the larger containers, with his cloak wrapped around himself. He reminded me of a vulture, or Bats. Either way, it was really creepy. Diana must have noticed his behavior as well because when she set down the box she was carrying she turned to Batman.

"Flash is right. There's something unsettling about your friend. When he stares, it's like he's looking into my very soul." She said, with a slight shudder.

"True," Bats said finally looking away from his clipboard, "But I'd rather have him with us than against us." I hummed in agreement, setting the container in my hands down onto the floor.

Suddenly the lights started flickering and then shut off completely, leaving only the emergency lights on. Entrigan stood up. "We are not alone."

Wonderful, as if this couldn't get any creepier, we have him saying that.

It was silent for a minute. Then suddenly there was a low shuffling sound. I looked around but I couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. Suddenly directly in front of us 20 people appeared. Actually, people is a loose term. They definitely weren't human. They resembled more of what an ogre would than anything. They each wore armor and had different weapons in their hands. Some of them I recognized, but others I had never seen before, and I didn't want to know just how much they would hurt if I got hit with one.

The doors behind us opened and Flash ran in. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" he asked completely oblivious to the monsters that were in the room.

"They did," I said nodding towards them.

His eyes widened as he finally noticed them. "Yikes!"

Entrigan stood up from the top of the container and shot a blast of fire at them, creating a wall between him and us. I waited with bated breath to see if the fire would stop them, but they continued right through it as though nothing were there.

"Too bad I didn't have time to stretch," I said cracking my neck, getting ready for the fight. Bats started by throwing one of his batarangs at them, which ended up tripping them. He hit the ground but that didn't stop the others.

One ran up to me and I easily dodged out of his way, kicking his knee in as he went past me. He crumpled to the ground while I moved onto the next one. Of course this guy had a weapon, one of those had a flail, one of those balls with the giant spikes on them. He swung it at me, but when he did I grabbed his arm and used his momentum to flip him over. He landed on his back and was pretty slow to get up.

I realized that the others were near me, slowly backing up to the center beam that ran the length of the Tower. "Where is J'onn?" Diana called to us. That's a pretty good question, I thought.

"It doesn't matter, we need to get away from these guys," Flash called out. He ran up the beam and the rest of us followed; Bats used his grappling hook, Diana flew, I used my ice, and Entrigan climbed up.

Guess how surprised we were when they started climbing up too, just as fast as we were. Another one came up behind me and grabbed my arms while another one punched my face. I saw stars for a second before I saw him pull his arm back to swing again. I kicked my legs up, wrapping them around his arm and twisting until I heard a snap. He started groaning and sank to the floor, clutching his arm in pain.

His friend must not have been too happy with me because he grabbed my arm harder. I kicked my legs backwards, kicking his knee. His grip on my arm wavered and I wrenched myself out of his grasp and punched him right in the face. I saw an axe lying on the ground beside me and I picked it up, testing the weight of it.

I saw one of the monsters run past me and head straight towards Batman, sword raised. I threw the axe, aiming for the helmet of the monster. I struck my target and he landed with a thud, the axe clanging to the ground.

"How many of these things are there?" Flash asked us.

"Too many!" I yelled, effectively knocking another monster on his ass. Unfortunately for me, my yelling cost me and one of the monsters grabbed my arm and held them to my sides. Another one grabbed my legs this time and held them up, so that I was in the air parallel with the floor. I tried wriggling my way out, but they were too strong.

"Flash, we need a maelstrom," Entrigan called out.

"A what?"

"A whirlwind," Entrigan yelled back, throwing one of the monsters across the room. "Run fast! Now!"

"Right!" Flash said as he began to run all around us. I continued to struggle with captors but physically there was no use. Then a little voice in my head reminded "Hey! You have superpowers!"

I started freezing my body wherever these morons were touching me. I had been practicing this for a while but I had no one to try it out on. My arms and legs had practically turned to ice before they realized what was happening. They let go of me, their fingers practically black from the cold. I landed on the ground but I couldn't move due to the force that Flash was making.

While Flash was herding us into a closer circle, Entrigan started yelling. "By the cold heart of Hera, I command you...freeze!" He held up his hands and I could immediately feel the ice leave his palms and freeze the monsters in place. A few seconds later and the monsters looked more like ice statues than anything else. "Faster!" Entrigan yelled to Flash.

"You got it." Flash started running faster and I could see the monsters shake. A crack formed in the monster standing above me before it shattered into ice shards. I heard the cracking and shattering of the other ones but I tucked my head between my knees, trying to keep the ice away from my eyes and to try to lessen the force of the whirlwind that Flash was making.

I finally looked up when Flash started running and everything was quiet. All around us were pieces of what used to be those monsters. A figure loomed over me and I looked up to see Bats holding his hand out. "Did you freeze them before Entrigan did?" He asked.

I grabbed his hand and he hauled me up. "Not all of them, just the two that had me."

"That's new," He said.

"Well yeah, I haven't exactly had anyone to try it out with yet. Plus, how did you even see that? You had two of your own you were struggling with," I said, crossing my arms across my chest.

"I notice everything," He said turning around. I grumbled for a minute before turning to Entrigan.

"I thought ice was my thing," I pouted, a little disappointed that I couldn't be the one to freeze all of them.

"You were too busy being beaten to do anything," he growled. How rude.

"Is everyone okay?" Bats asked us.

"We're fine, but has anyone seen J'onn?" Diana asked, beginning to sound really worried about our green skinned friend.

"Spread out and search every deck," Bats commanded, but he was interrupted by Entrigan.

"Don't bother," He said picking up a chunk of ice that disgustingly enough looked like a head. "The Martian's gone…and so is the stone."

We all let that sink in for a second before we rushed up to the vault. Flash opened the door, and sure enough the stone was gone. As soon as Entrigan saw the empty pedestal he, in no uncertain terms, lost his shit.

"You stupid, ignorant, pathetic excuses for heroes!" he yelled.

"It can't be," Diana said. Seriously? The stone's gone and J'onn is the only one who had access to it other than us. I leaned up against the door frame surveying the scene where I knew something was bound to happen.

"Oh, really, your highness?" Entrigan said, seeming to mirror my thoughts. "Take another look. I've pursued that witch for centuries! Yet you blindly ignored my warnings and doomed the world."

"Enough!" Diana said. And then she literally slapped a demon. Slapped! She is even crazier than I thought she was.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it, princess?" Entrigan said, the slap not even bothering him.

"Why don't you go straight to-"

"More bad news. The Javelin's gone," Flash said, running in and interrupting whatever Diana was going to say next. "And J'onn's access code is still punched into the hangar controls."

"Any more questions?" Entrigan asked, looking at all of us.

"There has to be a way to reach him," Diana said, walking down the hallway and heading to the control center.

I sighed as I pushed myself off the wall and followed her. "Diana, he isn't going to listen to us," I said.

She ignored me and went to the radio. "Watchtower to Javelin 7. Come in, Javelin 7." She released the button and waited another moment before speaking. "J'onn, if you're there, answer!" Another minute of silence. "Please, J'onn-" a click was heard and then silence. "He's turned off the comlink."

"Told you," I mumbled. She sent me a glare before Entrigan spoke up.

"He belongs to Le Fey now."

"We'll stop him. I promise," Flash said.

"Like you promised to protect the stone?" Entrigan countered. Well, he did have a bit of a point.

"We'll do whatever it takes, Entrigan," Batman spoke up.

"Are you saying you're prepared to take out one of your own?" Engrigan said, getting very close to Bats.

He glared at him, "I repeat, whatever it takes."

"Listen, isn't this kind of academic?" Flash asked, putting his hands on his hips. We're stranded here, remember?"

"Maybe not," Bats said. He looked up at Diana. "Get a lock on the Javelin." She nodded and went over to the computers. He smirked and I knew that he had a plan in mind.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Bats, are you sure about this?" I asked him as he explained the plan to us.

"It's the only option we have, Evie." He said.

"Right," I mumbled, slightly beginning to freak out. I didn't really like flying by a jet. Going by portal, I didn't think I would like this too much either.

"Alright," Entrigan said, his hands glowing pink with magic. "Everyone get ready."

We all stood in a line and waited as Entrigan made a wall of pink magic. "Now!" Bats yelled. Saying a quick prayer, I jumped through. Have you ever skipped a step and your stomach felt like it was falling? That's what this felt like, except ten times worse. I couldn't even close my eyes because within a second we were landing on a stone floor.

We all turned to face a throne, with J'onn standing right in front of us and the evil witch and her spawn behind him.

"Ding, fifth floor, sporting goods, its hardware, evil sorceresses," Flash said. I chuckled, forever grateful that Flash was the way he is.

Bats immediately went onto the offense, chucking a batarang at le Fay, but it only bounced off a force field before she started throwing her magic around. It hit me in the chest and I was thrown backwards. I did a flip and landed in a crouch but the others weren't so lucky. Flash and Diana were thrown back, and Entrigan just got to Bats in time before they were thrown to the floor.

J'onn started walking towards le Fay with the stone in hand. "J'onn, no!" I yelled, hurling myself at him and practically sitting on his back trying to reach the stone. My efforts didn't stop him. Instead he threw me off of him and I rolled for a little bit before coming to a stop on my stomach.

Entrigan leaped over me and tackled J'onn to the ground, then sent another burst of energy towards Le Fay and Mordred. I got back to my feet but didn't attack yet. There was no point in me wasting my energy if I wouldn't do any damage to them.

Then, something really surprising happened. Mordred ran forward shooting his own blasts of magic at Flash and Diana. "Get out of my castle!" he yelled. I threw ice all around him, forming a thick wall. I figured his magic wasn't as strong as his moms was so it should hold him for a bit.

I looked over and saw J'onn kicking the crap out of Entrigan. He picked the stone back up, but I couldn't stop him since Le Fay was shooting magic literally everywhere. I ran behind a couple of columns just to stay out of the way. I heard my ice breaking and I knew that Mordred was free from his temporary prison.

"Yield…or suffer my unending wrath," She called out.

I looked across from me and saw that Bats was hiding behind a column, waiting for a chance to throw a batarang. A movement caught my eye, but I did a double take. Was that a throne? With teeth?

I didn't really stop and question it as I watched it jump on Batman's chest, pinning him to the ground. I threw ice on it and the force of it made the throne flip off of him.

Bats and I ran over to the edge of the deck. He threw a batarang at it, causing it to jump in the air. I froze it and put it on the edge, and Bats kicked it over. We watched it fall until a blast of magic hit the corner of the deck and exploded. We ducked and looked around, seeing Mordred was aiming right for us. Flash ran behind him and grabbed him in his arms.

"That's a bad idea," I said, trying to run over and stop him. Before I could get there, Le Fay had already hit Flash with her magic and he was thrown back.

Diana flew up behind us and threw her lasso, effectively wrapping it around Le Fay. It wasn't effective very long because Le Fay sent electricity back through the rope causing it to electrocute her. She fell to the ground and Bats went to check on her.

Right before he touched her I realized what he was doing. "Bats, no!" I cried but it was too late, the electricity transferred from Diana to him. He fell back, but when he did his arm touched my ankle, causing me to get some of the electricity as well. I dropped to my knees as the shock went through me.

Through watering eyes I saw Entrigan and J'onn were still fighting.

"Stand and fight, blast you!" Entrigan called out as J'onn dodged another one of his attacks. He ducked behind a column and Entrigan followed him. J'onn had phased through a wall and came out on the other side, catching Entrigan off guard and landing a punch square to his face. Entrigan recovered quickly and sent more magic his way, but J'onn liquefied and slid across the floor until he came up behind him again. He placed his hands on Entrigan's head, who started yelling in pain.

"Nothing will keep me from my loved ones! Especially not you." J'onn yelled. I struggled to get to my feet but the electricity had really taken its toll on me, not including my still hurt ribs and wrist.

Entrigan let out one last cry of pain before J'onn released him. Now, instead of Entrigan lying on the floor, it was Jason. J'onn looked over him with an expression on his face that I had never seen before, and quite frankly I never wanted to see it again.

"The stone. Give it to me," Le Fay said. It was dead quiet as Diana and Batman sat up around me and we watched to see what J'onn would do.

J'onn took a hold of the stone, and looked as if he was contemplating giving it to her. My heart quickened as he stepped forward to give it to her. I tried getting up but Batman grabbed my arm, keeping me on the ground. "Just watch," he murmured.

I looked at him and then looked back at J'onn. With the stone in his hand he held it out for Le Fay to grab, but right before she could touch it, J'onn clenched his fist, making the stone crumble. "No." was all he said.

"What have you done?" Le Fay asked, looking downright furious. "You could have had anything you dreamed of. Your family, your whole world could have been yours again."

"The price was too high," he said. "I see that now. You can no longer tempt me." I smiled, knowing that J'onn was back in his right state of mind. I stood up, pulling Bats up with me, then reached down and helped Diana onto her feet.

"Have we lost mother?" Mordred asked, suddenly sounding like the child he actually was.

"Only this battle, my son," she said as they both began to glow in a golden light. "But not the war." She lifted her hands up and teleported both of themselves out of the room.

We all were getting our bearings about us when the room started transforming back into what it was before. We ran outside to see that all of London had returned back to its original buildings.

"It's over," Bats said, coming up next to me to stand.

"My friends, I have failed you. In my yearning for my old family I almost lost my new one. Please, accept my humble apology…and my resignation from the Justice League." What?!

J'onn started walking away back down the street. "Resignation?" Flash asked.

Before any of us could stop him, Jason stepped forward. "Wait, the demon was wrong about you Martian. You redeemed yourself here today."

"Did I?"

"Yeah, who knew? Under that goofy green skin, I guess you're human after all," Flash said with a smile.

Jason walked past J'onn. "I only wish I had had your strength centuries ago. But I'm still cursed and must walk alone throughout eternity." Without so much as a goodbye, Jason kept walking down the street, the fog consuming him as he went.

"That poor man. May he someday find the peace he seeks," J'onn said.

I agreed with him, but didn't say anything out loud due to the yawn that overtook me.

"Are you ready for bed now?" Bats asked.

"I would be, but I seem to be stuck in England," I said looking around at all the shops.

Bats chuckled. "Once we get to the Watch Tower I'll take you home. You look like you could use some sleep," he smirked.

"Oh, ever the gentleman," I said, nudging his arm. I climbed into the Javelin and took a seat in the back. Within a minute, I was already asleep.

I do not own anything related to DC comics, only my OC.

Please leave a review for me!


	13. Another Author Note

Hello everyone!

So I am so so so so so so so so so so so sorry for not updating recently. I just finished my second year of college and I already applied to grad school. Basically my life has been super super crazy.

I want to thank every single one of you for reading my story, following it, and writing the reviews that you do. Every time I sign on and see another review or a follower it makes me so happy. Thankfully school just ended so when I'm not working I will be spending my time writing.

Thank you all so much, and as always, let me know if you would like to see something specific in upcoming episodes/seasons.

Love you all!

-S


	14. Savage Time

Oh look at that, I'm alive. So…it's been a while. I feel like I should explain a few things. First, this past summer I started a full time job which worked twelve hour shifts. It was my first ever job so I was pretty worried about getting all of my work done. Then, school started and I started working on my Bachelor's degree and my Master's degree at the same time, which is very difficult. Finally, I lost faith in this story. I would try and write but it just wasn't coming to me, I had major writers block. One day I just sat down and started typing and it finally felt right. Of course, it had to be the week of finals so I didn't have time to finish it. But here I am, giving you guys a whole chapter.

I'm so sorry for the delay but I have the rest of January off, so hopefully I'll be able to write more. Thank you guys for sticking through this story with me. I appreciate it so much. Please, as always, leave comments and reviews. I've gotten so many good ideas from you guys and it absolutely encourages me to keep writing. I hope you guys enjoy.

NOTICE this chapter does contain some mild forms of torture, along with knives and blood so please be careful reading this if it will affect you. As always, I own nothing except my own character.

"Are we there yet?" I groaned, while picking at my nails. "We've been flying for hours."

"We should be there soon, Evie," Superman said. He turned back to the control panel and hit the coms button. "Do you think we'll make it?" He asked a very disgruntled Green Lantern.

"I should have enough juice to get us home, although my ring is going to need some serious recharging after towing you clowns halfway across the galaxy." So let me set the stage for you. We, meaning Flash, J'onn, Diana, Hawkgirl, Superman, and I, were running a mission in the middle of outer space when someone aka Flash, realized that the jet hadn't been properly fueled which resulted in us having to call G.L. for a tow.

"Hey, at least we won the battle," Flash said. Everyone murmured in agreement, probably exhausted from fighting whatever aliens we had to. I don't even bother keeping track of the different species now a days. There's just too many.

I looked out the windshield and saw that the watchtower was coming into sight. Thank goodness, I had monitor duty tonight and I could practically smell the coffee that was waiting for me.

"Javelin 7 to Watchtower, come in," Superman called into the radio.

"Watchtower here," Batman immediately answered. Of course he had been the one to volunteer staying behind. It would be his own personal form of torture if he had to ride in the jet with all of us at once.

"Prepare the landing bay, we're coming in," Superman said.

"Just as I was starting to enjoy the peace and quiet around here," Bats snarked, but I could hear the small smile in his voice.

I leaned up to the coms. "Hey, can you put on a pot of coffee for me please?" I asked him. I heard a sigh on the other end.

"The light roast, right?"

"Yes please!" I said, smiling. I could practically feel his eye roll and the coms immediately were turned off.

"He knows your coffee order?" Flash asked me as I sat back down.

"Yeah, we drink enough of it. It's hard not to notice," I said shrugging. We were about fifty feet from the hangar door, which had just started opening, when there was a bright light coming from somewhere on Earth. We all looked down just in time to see the light growing brighter and brighter until it was completely blinding and we all had to shield our eyes.

"Great Hera!" Diana said. The light started to dissipate and we immediately looked at the Earth. There was a large rippling going across the planet. From this high up, it looked like a hurricane. Clouds were forming a perfect circle and the ripples were coming from where the eye would have been. Soon the ripples reached us and the javelin shook, sending us all to the floor. I slammed into one of the control panels hitting my ribs on the corner. The ship shook for a few more seconds before everything was eerily still.

Everyone groaned and tried sitting up. J'onn stood above me and offered me a hand, which I gladly took, and he hauled me off the ground. "What was that?" Diana asked, saying what everyone else was thinking.

"I don't know," Superman said, "But look!" He pointed over to the moon. It took me a second to understand what was wrong with the moon, it still looked fairly normal. But then it hit me, I shouldn't be able to see the moon because the Watchtower should be blocking the view. I looked around, thinking that our position was off from whatever happened to us, but there was no Watchtower anywhere.

"Hey, where'd the Watchtower go?" Flash asked. My breathing started to speed up a little as Superman flew over to the coms panel.

"Batman, come in. Do you read me? Batman!" he yelled into the coms. There was only dead silence on the line and I felt my legs shaking.

"He's gone." We all turned to look at J'onn, who had the most sorrowful look on his face. His eyes were glowing and you could see that he was trying to concentrate on something. "And so is the Watchtower," He said. We all stared at him in shock, not really knowing what to say.

"What do you mean he's gone?" I asked. "He can't just be gone, that's impossible. The tower and Bats have to be somewhere!" I hadn't noticed my voice was getting higher the longer I spoke. "So if the tower isn't right here, then where the hell is it?" I asked, at this point I was practically yelling.

"Hey, calm down," Flash said as he lightly grabbed my wrist. "I'm sure we'll figure this out, ok?" I took a deep breath and nodded.

"Look, we can't stay here forever, my ring is going to give out sooner or later," Green Lantern said. "Why don't we land on Earth and then we can figure out what's going on from there." Everyone muttered an agreement and we took our seats, preparing for our descent. I strapped myself in and started bouncing my leg up and down, my anxiety at an all-time high.

Where was Bats and the Watchtower? They both couldn't just disappear. We were only fifty feet away from the tower when it disappeared and we would have noticed if it had lost orbit. I started chewing on my fingernails, just wanting some answers. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt the Javelin land and everybody started to get up.

Apparently I had missed out on a conversation while I was in my head, because when we landed we were trying to make plans in order to find the source of the pulse that we felt.

We all stepped off the Javelin and looked at the city, only to notice that this wasn't any city we recognized. "Where the heck are we?" Flash asked.

"Looks like we're home," Superman said, looking up at one of the buildings. I followed his gaze and I saw the top of the Daily Planet building. So this was our home, but why did all the buildings look different, and why were there red flags everywhere? We took a few more steps away from the Javelin until we were on a bridge, overlooking most of the city and a subway rail.

"Metropolis…" Diana whispered.

"But how?" Hawkgirl asked, as equally confused as the rest of us.

"Either the city fathers did some high speed urban renewal while we were away or…" Flash trailed off.

"Or what?" Lantern asked.

"I don't know," Flash said, looking down. He looked over his shoulder and must have seen something interesting. "Wait," He said before speeding to the other side of the street. He ripped a poster off a stand and ran back over to us. "This dude's picture is all over the place, who is he?" He asked. I looked at the man and saw that he had dark hair, a black goatee, and he was wearing a smirk in this picture. His shoulders were broad, telling me that he was probably very muscular. He could have been considered very handsome had it not been for the weird look in his eyes. Even in the picture, I could tell that this man was dangerous.

"Hey, you there!" A man's voice called out to us. We all turned around to see two men in grey uniforms standing before us, one of them with a gun pointed directly at us. The man who called out to us took a step forward and reached his hand out to us. "Show me your papers!"

I looked around confused. "What?" Lantern asked, looking like he genuinely didn't know either. The officer looked even more irritated now and walked towards us.

"You heard me," he said yanking the poster out of Flash's hands. "Let's see your identity papers, now!"

"Sorry but my identity is a secret, the chicks dig that whole man of mystery thing," Flash said. I looked at Diana and Shay who both wore annoyed looks on their face. I rolled my eyes and looked back at Flash.

"Do you think this is a joke?" The officer said, now sounding very pissed off. "You're under arrest." He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and advanced on Flash.

"On what charge?" Shay asked, stepping in front of Flash. Uh oh.

"Move out of the way," the officer said, putting his hand on Shay's shoulder in order to move her. I widened my eyes. My friend, that was not a smart move, I thought. Shay immediately flipped his arm over and we all heard the small crack that followed. Before any of us could react she had thrown the officer across the sidewalk so that he landed on the park bench across the street.

The other officer looked stunned for a moment before he started to radio for back up. He shot three flares into the sky, letting other officers know of our position. Within moments there were other officers surrounding us. One of them shot their gun at Superman, who was hit with a bolt of electricity which put him on his knees for a moment. Lantern quickly put a shield around us, blocking the rest of the shots.

"Can we get out of here please?" I yelled, extending my staff and getting ready for a fight. All of a sudden we heard the sound of engines coming in closer. We looked up and saw motorized vehicles flying in above us, also shooting at Lantern's shield.

"Scatter!" Lantern yelled as his shield collapsed. I put my arms up and formed a shield of ice over my head as I ran to a corner of a building where I would be covered, if only for a moment. As soon as I got to the corner, I peered around, seeing Diana reflecting shots off of her wrists, and saw Superman flying while trying to knock down some of those vehicles. Figuring I should help him, I jumped onto a disk and started shooting bursts of ice at the two vehicles closest to me. I managed to freeze on of the wings, causing that vehicle to fall to the ground. The other vehicle started shooting at me, but I shot a burst of ice at its weapons, rendering it useless. I looked over to see another dozen vehicles coming at us from the air.

"Evie!" I heard Flash yell. I looked down to see him gesturing towards himself. "Come on!" he said before he started running. I flew over in his direction and jumped off my disk and breaking out into a sprint, trying to follow the world's fastest man. Everyone else was following suit and I caught up to all of them once we got to an alley. More bolts of electricity were raining down on us so I quickly threw up an ice barrier in the entryway, knowing that it would only hold for a few seconds. Everyone else had already jumped through an exposed manhole cover, so I jumped through and was caught by two strong arms.

I looked up and Flash was grinning at me. "I knew you'd fall for me eventually." I rolled my eyes and he set me down. I looked around and saw that we were in an old abandoned subway car. "Nice wheels," Flash said, looking up towards the driver's seat. I looked over and saw that someone was sitting up front driving the sub car. The person in question was wearing all black, with broad, muscular shoulders, and a black mask with horn-like stubs at the top.

"Bats?" I whispered, my eyes going wide. Before I could walk up to him there were shots that were ricocheting off the side of the car. I looked out the window and saw about a dozen soldiers firing at us. "We need to get out of here, now!" I yelled.

"Hang on!" A gravelly voiced answered. My heart stopped because I'd know that voice from anywhere. Bats actually was driving the subway car. He hit a lever and we shot off at an alarmingly high speed. Thank goodness I was holding onto the pole because everyone else fell over onto a heap on the floor.

The further down the tunnel we went, the less shots we could hear, until after a few moments we couldn't hear anything at all. I let go of the pole and turned around to look at the rest of my friends who were on the floor trying to get up.

"Whose hand is that?" Shay asked. Flash turned three shades paler and whipped his arm out of the pile.

"Sorry," he said while nervously chuckling. I smirked and turned back around in order to watch out the window and try to figure out where we were going. Superman was standing behind me, I'm assuming to try and do the same thing I was. Up ahead a yellow construction panel was blocking the middle of the tracks and behind that was a boarded up tunnel…and we were still going full steam ahead towards it.

I looked down at 'Bats' and saw that he didn't look worried, he was as calm as ever, so I figured there was nothing to really be worried about either. Superman didn't quite get that memo though. I heard him give a sharp intake as if he was bracing himself for impact right before we hit the wall, but the wall slid up and we drove through it.

After a few more seconds 'Bats' stopped the subway car and turned around, almost hitting me. "Sorry," I muttered. I finally was able to get a good look at him. This definitely wasn't our Bats. His outfit was much different. He had lost the cape, and instead of the cloth that he usually wore his outfit looked like it was made of armor. His mask was different as well. Usually we could see his eyes, but now practically his whole face was covered by a face shield, except for his mouth.

He had wavered for a moment, just looking at me, before brushing past me and to the subway door. We all followed him in silence until we stepped out onto the platform. I looked around and saw crates and materials covered with sheets along with what looked like a car. A really nice car. This Bats had stepped ahead of us, not bothering to say a word. We all stayed back and just watched him.

"This is too weird, even for him," Flash said. I don't think everyone else quite got the memo that this wasn't our Batman. "Hey, wait up. I've got some questions," Flash said as he ran up and grabbed Batman's arm. Within seconds of him laying a hand on him thirty people jumped out from behind the crates all pointing weapons at us. I noticed that they were dressed in a similar type of armor as Batman and assumed that they worked for him. Everyone else circled up, trying to keep an eye on these officers, but I stayed calm and stared right at Bats.

"No, I'll ask the questions," He finally said, turning around to face us. "Who are you?" He asked Flash, practically towering over him. Flash took a step back.

"Bats, you're starting to scare me," Flash said.

"I scare a lot of people." He looked up at the rest of us. "The resistance may be able to use you, but you're going to have to prove we can trust you."

"Are you kidding?" Lantern asked him, "You've known us for years!"

Apparently fed up with these answers Bats whipped around and grabbed a gun from the nearest soldier and pointed it right at us. "You must have me confused with someone else." All right, I've had enough of this.

I stepped out in front of Flash so that the gun was pointed directly at me. He looked at me, looking like he was trying to measure me up. I put a hand on top of the gun and gently pointed it down. "I need you to trust us," I said. The gun came right up in front of my face, and I knew I was really taking a gamble with what I was going to say next. "Bruce, please," I whispered low enough that no one else, except maybe Superman, would hear me. This seemed to take him by surprise because he lowered the gun a fraction of an inch, which gave Superman enough time to push me out of the way and snatch the gun from his hand.

"Look, if we wanted to hurt you we would have," he said. They were both in each other's faces and they both looked pissed. Even more officers came close to us, each of them pointing a gun at us. Bats took a second to think before he seemed to glance over at me. He put his hand up and then opened it, and the soldiers lowered their weapons and took a few steps back. I let out the breath I had been holding, along with everyone else. Superman held up the gun which he accidentally bent out of shape and smiled apologetically at Bats.

He looked at it for a moment before looking back at us. "Let's talk." He turned around and led us up a stair case that overlooked where we were just standing. There was a giant computer set up, very similar to what we had in the Watchtower. Bats sat down in the seat and faced the computer while everyone else gathered around him. I stayed closer in the back, so that I could still see and hear him but he couldn't see me. I just felt really nervous around him. He wasn't the same Bats that we knew, this one didn't care about using guns. Our Bats has a strict rule against them, and that made it all the more real that I didn't know who this man was.

"The Stormtroopers came to our house, I was eight years old." I snapped my head up and looked at him. I hadn't really been paying attention but this must be what caused this Bats to end up like this.

"And they murdered your parents," Superman finished for him. "Why?"

"For speaking out against the regime."

"Incredible," Superman said. Bats turned around and looked at us.

"Not really, it happens every day." He stood up and walked towards us. "That's why I started the resistance." He looked over the balcony and I turned around, leaning against the rail and looked at everyone. A few of them were sparring, some fixing their weapons. A couple was leaning against a pillar having quite an intense make out session. "We're all orphans and outsiders, fighting the good fight."

"How long has this regime been in power?" Lantern asked.

"Since World War two."

We all looked at each other confused. "But we won that one, didn't we?" Flash said, finally speaking up.

"No." Bats turned back around and hit a few buttons on the computer. "They did." The screen pulled up black and white photos of the Nazis marching through Germany.

"You're telling us we lost World War two?" Lantern asked, obviously in disbelief. That was his Marine Corp side coming out. "That's insane. The allies invaded Europe on D-Day and…"

"It was a disaster. D-Day was the beginning of the end for the allies."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this," Lantern said. Quite frankly, I agreed with him. It was inconceivable that we had lost World War two.

"Something's obviously happened to the time and space continuum," J'onn finally said, speaking for the first time since we were on the Javelin.

"Probably caused by the disturbance we saw," Superman said.

Bats looked around at all of us obviously a little confused. "But why weren't we affected?" Diana asked.

"Perhaps the aura from Lantern's ring protected us," J'onn replied.

"Want to share?" Bats asked, stepping forward.

"Have you detected any large electrical or magnetic disturbances recently?" Superman asked him.

Bats paused for a minute before he answered. "We experienced some interference on our com links. Why?"

Superman started explaining everything we knew to this Bats. I turned back around and looked down at the officers below. I heard muttering coming from the rest of the group but I didn't feel like walking over to them. All I really wanted was to get our version of Bats back. The one who actually knew who we were and would (somewhat) happily throw in some sarcastic comments here and there. I didn't want his Bats who carried a gun and obviously was all alone. There was no Justice League in this world.

I sensed someone next to me and looked over, very surprised to see Bats there. "You know my actual name," He said. I merely nodded in response, not quite sure where this was going. "That must mean that your version of me is pretty close with you. I don't let just anyone know who I am."

I thought about it for a second before choosing my words very carefully. "I guess you could consider us friends. We work together, and we live in the same city so we bump into each other occasionally."

This Bats just nodded. "Well, it's a good thing we're such good friends then." He said. "It made it a little easier to trust you." I smiled and ducked my head, nodding. "By the way, you were never in any real danger." I looked over at him, very confused.

"What do you mean?"

"With the gun, I wasn't going to shoot you, I just needed answers."

I looked at him before giving him a small smile. "Well, thanks I guess." He didn't say anything back, which I took as a 'you're welcome'. A few seconds later his computer beeped and he walked over towards it.

"We've got something."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

About half an hour later, we were all standing on top of a roof, looking at a certain building in the middle of the city.

"According to my readings the pulse emanated from here," Bats said. "Vandal Savage's research center."

"Who's Vandal Savage?" I asked.

Bats whipped around, looking at us like we're crazy. "You're joking." When none of us said anything he must have realized that we had no idea who this guy was. He pointed over to a poster, the same poster that Flash had picked up earlier. "That's Vandal Savage. He's everything I've been fighting against. The undisputed dictator of this repressive regime."

"Let's see what's inside," J'onn said. He flickered out of vision and sunk through the floor. Everyone else flew away from the rooftop, leaving only Bat's and I and a few other soldiers left.

I looked over at him. "Need a ride?" I asked while stepping onto a disk. He shook his head and pulled out a grappling hook. I smiled, it was nice to know that some things hadn't changed. We reached the roof and J'onn went in first.

"Come on, this way," Lantern said as he wrenched open the rooftop access door. We rand own the stairs and came into a hallway.

"Which way?" I asked.

"Down here, I can hear voices," Superman said as he rushed past me. We followed after him and were met with a large metal door.

"Step aside boys," Shay said, flying up and lighting up her mace. She knocked on the door three times before the doors shot open and we all flew or ran in. The scientists immediately scattered, not looking to pick a fight with us.

"Well that was easy," I said, leaning against my staff. I spoke way too soon because moments later bolts of light were shooting past us. I turned around and saw that soldiers were swarming into the lab. I threw up an ice shield around me as Diana lassoed one of the guns out of the officer's hands. Flash ran by and punched three of them and they immediately fell down on the ground.

Two soldiers were running towards me, so I dropped my ice shield and threw it at them. They both ducked under it but it gave me enough time to knock out the first guard with one hit. He crumpled to the floor and the other officer circled around me. He lunged but I dodged out of the way and as he went past me, I grabbed his arm and locked it behind him. He tried to struggle but I kicked one of his knees, causing him to kneel on the ground. I gave him a swift elbow to the head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

I looked around just in time to see Bats set off a smoke bomb, causing the two that he was fighting to fall to the floor, coughing before they stopped moving. "Over here," J'onn called to us. We all ran over to him and saw that he was standing next to a few computer monitors and…a portal?

"What is that?" Superman asked.

"Heavy matter. Like a black hole," J'onn replied, staring right into the center of the swirling blue-purple-lightningy thing. "They used it as a tunnel into the past."

"And altered history to change the outcome of the war," Shay said, filling in some of the blanks.

"Can we change it back?" Flash asked

"It would be risky. We only have 48 hours before it collapses." J'onn said. We all ducked our heads as a rumble came from the portal, causing the room to shake.

"We've got to try," Lantern said. I'm not sure what my facial expression looked like, but I imagine I was looking at everyone like they were insane.

"I'm sorry, but isn't this impossible? What if we mess time up even more?" I asked, looking around at everyone.

"Evie, we have to try. If we do this right, then everything would go back to being normal," Superman said, putting a hand on my shoulder. If we changed everything back, then that meant that normal had our Bats in it. I gave a slight nod before looking back at the portal.

"Wait! Are you saying that my world, my whole life is like this because someone went back in time and changed the past?" Bats asked. There was more emotion in his voice right now then I had ever heard in the little time I've known him.

"That appears to be the case," J'onn said.

"Then doing this can save my parents." My eyes widened and I could feel tears starting to fill them up. Even if we did change everything, his parents still died. There would be an 8 year old Bruce who had to watch his parents get killed right in front of him. And knowing that crushed my heart even more.

"I can't promise that," Superman said.

"Will you come with us?" Shay asked him.

"No. If this doesn't work, someone has to stay behind and fight."

J'onn walked up to Bats. "You understand that if we change the past then you, this version of you, will never have existed."

Bats gave his signature smirk, "Nothing would make me happier. Now go."

Lantern was the first to jump through, followed by Superman, Diana, Flash, J'onn, and then Hawkgirl. I teetered on the edge before I turned around. Bats was just staring but when he made eye contact with me, he gave a small nod. I gave him a small smile and a two fingered salute before falling backwards into the vortex.

Now, just to be clear, I really don't recommend traveling through time and space by vortex, because it is the scariest and most painful thing to ever happen. Your body doesn't feel real, you're just falling, but you still know exactly what's happening. After what felt like forever, my body hit hard ground and I just laid there for a second, trying to catch my breath.

Everyone was just groaning and I could hear a popping noise, but I wasn't sure if it was real or if it was just my ears. I rolled over onto my stomach and pushed myself up into a kneeling position. Flash was one of the first ones to stand up. "Where are we?"

I looked around and saw that we were in a building, but it looked like it had been through a tornado. Most of the roof was torn off and the windows were shattered. Debris was everywhere and there was a large barricade on one side of the room. Flash sprinted up to the top of the debris pile and looked out. "Great jumping Hera!"

We all looked at him and started to get up and make our way to where he was. When we reached the top, we were all surprised by the sight. We were in the middle of a town, if you could even call it that. Most of the buildings were crumbling or on fire, and there were men running around in dark green uniforms. I found out what the popping I heard earlier was, it was gunfire. Shots were being fired all across the town, with some tanks thrown into the mix.

"It's just like those old documentaries," Flash said. Yeah, and now we're living in it.

"Not quite," Shay said, looking over at a wall. Cracks were appearing and the ground was shaking. My first thought was that it was a tank, and I was slightly right. The wall finally broke and a huge red tank rolled through. And when I say huge, I'm really not exaggerating. This thing was at least 6 stories tall. The center of it rotated and it had large spikes, probably to be used to gain traction, but it could easily cruse one of our tanks. Each side had two cannons on it that easily outgunned our tanks.

The allies tried firing at it and it couldn't even make a dent in the metal. "One of these things just doesn't belong here," I hummed out, and Flash gave a small snort. One of the cannons went off and easily destroyed two of our tanks, along with a dozen men.

"C'mon, let's go," Lantern said. He flew off and went to go help a tank that was about to be blasted. The rest of us shared a look before we took off. I jumped on some ice and circled around, trying to figure out where I would be the most helpful. I wouldn't be much use to the men unless they needed an icepack, so I figured I would try and tackle the giant red tank. Ambitious, I know.

Flash had tried to distract one of the cannon operators, but that only ended up in him having to be rescued by Diana. I flew over to the cannon and hovered in front of it, looking at the driver, who obviously looked very shocked. "Hi there," I said smiling and waving before putting my hands out and freezing the end of the cannon, trying to get as much ice inside as I possibly could. I don't think the driver knew what to do because he started pressing as many buttons as he could but nothing was happening.

I looked over and saw that Superman was working on taking care of the other before he was shot at, but they merely bounced off of him. He flew down in front of the wheel, trying to keep the tank from proceeding. After a moment, the tank stopped and we saw J'onn phasing out of the center. The cannon on the other side moved and Lantern took care of it, shooting a blast on the inside that blew up the cannon.

With the tank stopped, Superman, Diana, Shay and I pushed on one side, causing the tank to fall over and explode. I stood up and dusted some debris off my jacket when we heard cheering coming from the soldiers behind us. They started running down the street, on their way to the next location.

Flash walked over, holding his ribs which I'm sure were bruised. "I feel like road kill."

"You look like it," I said smiling and nudging his arm.

"Hey, thanks doll!" One of the soldiers yelled at us. I couldn't tell if he was speaking to Diana, Shay or me, but I suddenly noticed that I was definitely not dressed for this time period in my leotard, fishnet tights, heeled boots and my small, half jacket. I still smiled and waved at them, figuring none of them had even seen a women in God knows how long. I had to chuckle seeing some of the younger soldiers stop walking just to stare at us.

"I pulled this from the control panel," J'onn said walking up to us holding a computer chip.

"Transistors, they weren't invented until after the war," Lantern said.

Diana took the chip and studied it and I looked over her shoulder at it. "This definitely doesn't belong here. This looks like from out time," I said.

"The scientists at the laboratory said the hole was unstable. What is from out time could have gotten here months ago, perhaps years."

"So, where do we start?" Shay asked. A giant boom broke the silence and we all ducked our heads. Out of the trees came another tank, and it wasn't alone. Within seconds there were multiple ones surrounding the area.

"Those troops are getting decimated," Superman said, turning to us.

Everyone ran out to help them, except for J'onn, Superman, Diana and I. "You help them, I'll fly to Berlin. I suspect that the answer to this mystery lies there." He turned to go before I spoke up, but I wasn't the only one.

"Wait," I said, along with Diana. We both looked at each other.

"I can't let you go into enemy territory alone," She said.

"Oh, well I was going to say I could go with you but if Diana wants to go…" I trailed off.

"You both go," Superman said. "We'll take care of things here."

He left us, leaving the three of us to look at each other. All right then…

Diana flew off and J'onn grabbed my arm. "Here, hold on." He swung me around so that I was holding onto his shoulders and my legs were wrapped around his waist, and then he took off.

I really hated flying sometimes, at least when someone else was in control. It was freezing this high up and we were going extremely fast. I wasn't sure how far away we were from Berlin, but at this rate we would be getting there very soon. I had my face nestled into J'onn's cape, trying to keep the wind from my eyes.

"What's that?" Diana called. I looked up and saw that there were some old propeller planes fighting in the sky. One of the planes was obviously being attacked by the others but it didn't look like a fighter jet from this time. It was a yellow double propeller plane, and they all looked the same, which is what struck me as odd. If they were all from the same flying company, why would they be fighting?

One of the planes was hit by an array of bullets and started plummeting to the ground. "J'onn, let me go," I said. He loosened his grip on me and I started freefalling in the air. I whipped out my staff and opened it before creating an ice disk. I landed on the disk and went down to the plane that was now in flames. I sucked the moisture from the air which created water, and started putting the flames out.

I looked up to see Diana landing with someone in her arms. I flew over to the tree they were near and hopped off my desk and melted it into the ground.

"Angel," The man weakly said. Clearly he was delirious. "I must be in Heaven."

Diana smiled before she noticed me standing by the tree. As soon as she noticed me she looked back at the blonde man lying on the ground. "You're not dead. Are you a deserter, or a spy?" She asked, helping him sit up.

"I'm not sure I should tell you," He said, taking off his parachute sack. I noticed that he had an American accent, which led me to believe he was a spy and not a deserter, although he looked the part of a perfect German soldier with his blonde hair and striking blue eyes.

"Well, she did just save your life," I said, coming out from behind the tree and looking at him. He was quite muscular with broad shoulders that filled out his suit perfectly. He was very handsome, I would give him that. His eyes roamed my body for a minute before looking back at Diana.

"Why were they trying to shoot you down?" She asked him.

He looked at her for a minute before answering. "Just between you and me, I've got something they want," He said, glancing at the both of us. Diana and I shared a look.

"Go on," I said, arching an eyebrow at him

"Word is they're planning an invasion of England. And I have a way of finding out when and where." He stood up and brushed off his suit jacket. "But it's not going to mean a thing if I don't get to France so if you'll excuse me," He said, reaching down to grab Diana's hand and help her stand up. She took it and I noticed that he held her hand far longer than necessary and she was trying to hide a smile. He kissed her knuckles and shock swept across Diana's face and I had to hold back a chuckle.

The American let go of her hand and turned around, hopping over the fence. "And if you're ever stateside after this is over look me up. The name's Trevor. Steve Trevor."

Diana was literally trying to fight back a smile while I was still leaning against a tree. Steve, however, hadn't even taken two steps before J'onn flew down and literally stood inches in front of Steve.

"Woah," Steve said, taking a step back and reaching into his pocket, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at J'onn. I pushed off the tree and hopped over the fence, grabbing Steve's arm and gently pushing it down.

"Easy there big guy," I said. "He's with us."

He looked at me and then glanced over at Diana. "You're sure?" He said, not relaxing a bit. Sure, don't believe me. Believe the woman with the tiara. Diana nodded and Steve finally put the gun away, allowing all of us to relax a little.

"These weapons the axis has, where did they come from?" J'onn asked.

"Some genius named Vandal Savage," Steve said, suddenly looking very angry. J'onn, Diana, and I shared a look while Steve continued to talk. "The High Command was so impressed, they named him their new Fuhrer."

Well that was news to me. I figured Hitler would still be in command and Savage would just be on his council or something. I never believed he would have actually been in command of the entire German forces.

"Vandal Savage made these weapons?" Diana asked. I rolled my eyes, obviously he made them, they are from our time, Diana. Duh.

"Yeah, he's still got a lab over on Gunstraus, but you'll never get in. I've tried."

"I have a feeling it will be easier for me," J'onn said.

"I'll come with you," I said, taking a step forward. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

J'onn nodded and grabbed my hand making both of us transparent which felt very weird. I was very cold and slightly nauseas. I imagine this is what being a ghost felt like. "Close your eyes, Evie. It will make this easier," I heard J'onn's voice in my head. I noticed we were sinking down into the ground. I screwed my eyes shut and had the sense that I was flying very fast.

We stopped suddenly and peeked my eyes open, seeing a whole bunch of pipes, but they were slightly transparent. J'onn took a step and stepped out of the pipes with me in tow and everything became crystal clear. I grabbed my head, still feeling very nauseas and looked around, noticing we were in a boiler room of some sort, except it was massive. The room was at least two stories tall and the size of a football field.

J'onn walked forward and looked at some laptops and wires that were set up. I walked up behind him and peered around his giant shoulders. "A laptop?" J'onn said.

"Come this way, I thought I heard something," A very thick German accent said a few feet in front of us, coming from behind rows of shelves. J'onn grabbed my hand and pulled me through a closed door. Once he let go of my hand I noticed that we were back to being solid, but I still felt freezing cold.

I looked around the room and realized why. We were in a cryogenic ice chamber, judging by the tubes and labels that were coming out of the walls and the ceiling.

"Ok, I like it cold, but this is ridiculous," I said, shivering. I watched as my breath immediately turned to a crystalized fog. I noticed that J'onn wasn't next to me and I looked up and saw that he had walked past me and was standing in front of the cryogenic chamber, which was a crystal clear container with something, or rather someone, in it.

I slowly stepped forward until I was directly next to J'onn, looking up at the chamber. "This certainly wasn't in the history books," I said, as I looked up at the frozen body of Adolph Hitler. Yes, the leader of Germany was frozen in the basement of a German laboratory.

"Fascinating," was all the Martian said. I kept staring up at Hitler and while J'onn turned around to inspect the other equipment in the room. Before he could take a step, I heard the sparking of electricity and J'onn yelled, before falling to the ground. I gasped and turned around and saw Vandal Savage, sneering at us and wearing a metal glove, which still sparked with electricity.

"Hello," He said before the electricity from the glove shot out at me. I felt an immediate burst of pain radiate through my body, and then I saw nothing as I slipped into my unconscious.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

When I opened my eyes the only thing I could see was a bright, white light. I slammed them shut and slowly tried to open them again, and this time I could make out blurry shapes above me. I blinked a couple times and everything came into focus. I was staring up at a concrete ceiling, with pipes running alongside it. When I tried moving, I found that my upper arms were restrained. Perfect.

Well, I might as well try to escape, I thought. I looked around to see if there was anything I could kick over since my legs were let loose, but there wasn't anything around. After struggling for another five minutes I relaxed, panting.

I couldn't hear anything outside of this room, which wasn't surprising seeing as it was made out of concrete. I wondered where J'onn was and why he wasn't in the same room as I was. I heard a door open and shut, and footsteps started approaching the bench I was tied to.

A man stood over me, wearing a black uniform, with dark brown hair and eyes. I also noticed the abundance of knives that were strapped to his hip. "Ah, I see you are awake," The main said, his voice laced with a heavy German accent.

"Finally…the service here sucks. The last time I was captured, I was at least offered food within the first few hours," I said. The man only sneered at me, looking at me like I was something stuck on his shoe.

"We have your friend restrained and are torturing him as we speak. We want information on who you came here with. Failure to provide answers and I will be forced to become quite nasty."

I looked him up and down and grinned. "Do your worst. But you won't get anything out of me," I said, hoping to sound nonchalant about the whole thing. I don't think he bought it.

"Very well then," He took a knife off of his belt and twirled it between his fingers. "Such a waste of a beautiful girl."

Before I could ask what he meant, he swung his arm down and left a cut on my right arm. It wasn't too deep, but it stung like hell, and started leaving a small trail of blood down the rest of my arm. "Who are you and your friends?"

I rolled my eyes, "Oh, you know, just some weary travelers just hoping to help out a few soldiers throughout our travels," I said. "No one of real importance,"

The man smiled again and brought his knife down, going over the same cut again, but this time it was deeper, and hurt more. "The more you don't answer my questions, the deeper your cuts get," He said.

"Well than, by all means, let's get started," I said, tilting my head so that I could crack my neck.

I'm not sure how much time had passed, but by the time he had finished asking his questions, I had cuts and gashes running up both of my arms, which were now bleeding profusely. "Congratulations girl, you are the first person I have ever interrogated who hasn't broken," the soldier said, wiping his knife off on a handkerchief. "When I return, you will not be as lucky as to only have a few cuts. I think this time, I'll start with the fingers…" He said as he turned and walked away, out of sight and out of the doors.

As soon as he left I started to wiggle around some more, trying to get loose again, which only caused more pain to shoot up my arms. Sure the cuts weren't life threating, but they still hurt like hell, and they were deep so they weren't going to heal anytime soon. Before I could get any closer to trying to escape, the door opened up again and I could hear more footsteps.

Instead of my previous torturer, a tall, blonde man was quickly approaching me. "What, did I scare your other friend off? I told him I wasn't going to talk," I said, my body immediately tensing just thinking about being tortured some more.

"Not quite," The man said, and before I could blink, J'onn was standing in front of me.

"Oh, thank goodness," I said, relaxing in relief. "I didn't think I could stand anymore of that other guy staring at me like I was a Christmas ham he was about to slice into." J'onn walked over and broke that chains that tied my arms down, and he helped me sit up.

"You're arms…" He said, looking at the various cuts and gashes I had.

"They're fine," I said, shrugging off my injuries. "They aren't that bad, they just sting a little," I said. "C'mon, we should get out of here."

I slid of the metal table and was a little wobbly at first, but steadied myself. "How did you escape?" I asked.

"I merely phased through my restraints and punched the guy who was going to question me," J'onn said, changing back to the German soldier he was impersonating. "We must hurry, they will quickly realize that I am missing and that I destroyed the laptop."

"What laptop," I asked, jogging after J'onn, who ran through the doors and into a main hallway.

"Savage sent a laptop here to this time, with information on how to win the war. It had all of his plans on it. So naturally I destroyed it." He said, peering around the pillar we were hiding behind. "Shh!" he said, putting a finger to his mouth.

Two German soldiers were walking past, discussing about how Savage and Hitler were different in their controlling techniques. It still sounded weird to me that Hitler wasn't in charge anymore, but I figured that now wasn't the time to be worrying about it. I looked down at my arms and noticed that some of my cuts were already scabbing over.

The soldiers had walked past us and we ran down the hallway and toward the doors. We safely made it out of the compound and we stopped to catch our breath. "So, other than making Hitler a Popsicle, did we find out anything?" I asked J'onn.

"Yes, before I destroyed the laptop, I saw what Savage's plans were. He plans on targeting the United States. If he can cripple the U.S. Government, then there isn't anyone else to really stop him in this war."

I nodded my head, thinking about Savage's plans. "So if he wants to attack America, then he will have to fly there, right?" I asked him. "So, where's his air field?"

"About fifty miles west of here I believe," J'onn said, looking westward in that direction.

"Well then, let's go," I said, jumping onto a disc and hovered above the ground. J'onn shot me a small smile and took off into the air. We flew fast enough that we were in the air above the airfield within 10 minutes. Superman, and Hawkgirl were there, waiting for us.

We flew over and met them, quickly catching up with everything that had been going on in the past few hours. Apparently they had met up with some pilots who were willing to help us take Savage down, along with helping the rest of the soldiers out that J'onn, Diana, and I had left behind.

"Hey, where's Lantern?" I asked, looking around and noticing that he wasn't there.

Shay looked down and couldn't meet my eyes. "His ring gave out, but we had to take the injured men back to the base camp. We don't know where he is," She said.

I stood there shocked for a minute before I snapped myself out of it. "Shay, it's not your fault. It's our job to help people, especially when they are injured like this. Besides, Stewart was a marine. He's as tough as they come, and God help the person who decides to cross him, even without his ring."

Shay finally looked up and smiled at me, feeling a little bit better about the situation. The loud rumbling of an engine could be heard and we looked down, seeing four or five jets taking off. "Well, looks like we're up," I said. We all flew after the jets and started taking them down one by one and piece by piece.

I went to the jet farthest in the back and started freezing the wings, making it difficult for them to steer and fly. They started shooting their guns towards the others but I flew down and covered the barrels of the gun in ice, not allowing them to get another shot off. Diana literally flew through one of the wings, causing them to loose altitude at a very fast pace. Superman had inadvertently taken out one of their engines, so it didn't look like this jet would be staying the air for much longer. Two other jets were still in the air, but they were in just as bad of a shape as the others were in.

Suddenly, shots were coming from below us, and I saw that we were finally above the ocean, with the Navy's battleships shooting the remaining jets. I could barely see Flash, standing on the deck next to the captain, watching everything through a pair of binoculars. A loud explosion sounded and the jet that was leading the others was freefalling straight towards the ocean, with Hawkgirl shooting towards it.

I noticed that J'onn looked a bit out of sorts and I flew over to help him. "Are you okay?" I asked.

He held his head for a moment but eventually straightened up. "I'm fine, did Shayera get Lantern? He was in Savage's jet." I glanced up and saw Shay holding Lantern, flying him through the air.

"Yeah, she got him. He looks to be fine." J'onn nodded and flew over to Superman and Diana, who were watching the two other jets retreat.

"Should we go after them?" Diana asked.

"There's no need," Superman said, pointing to some planes who were coming in. On the side of the jet was a hawk silhouette, and I assumed that these were the men that Superman had mentioned earlier.

They easily shot the other jets down and we looked at each other, not having to say a word. We knew that history would take its course. With Savage now gone, the only leader the Germans could turn to is Hitler, so I guess they will have to unfreeze him. Hitler will act like his typical raging self and will lose the war.

"How much longer until the 48 hours are up?" I asked a few minutes into us flying.

"Not long at all. We need to get back to the portal site," Superman said. Apparently the portal sight was in another lab that the German had. By now it had been evacuated and it was practically empty. We walked into the large room that had the portal and J'onn looked at the screens.

"It is collapsing, we must hurry." Well, he didn't have to tell us twice. Flash was the first through, followed by J'onn, Hawkgirl, Lantern, Superman, me, and then Diana. Seconds after Diana was through, the portal started sparking, sending off a wave of energy. The machines around us were going crazy, making high pitched noises. The light from the portal grew and grew until we could hardly look at it. With a bright flash, the noise was gone, along with the portal.

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the portal to the 1940's was gone, and no one could mess with time again, at least for now. I noticed something wet on my arms and saw that the portal opened up some of my cuts, leaving small trails of blood down my arms.

"Home sweet home…I hope," Flash said looking around at the building. There was no telling if we were in our usual time line, or if we were back in the resistance Batman's time line. That is until…

"I should've known you'd be here." We all jerked our heads around and saw Batman, our Batman, stepping out of the shadows. "The instruments in the Watchtower picked up this anomaly a few hours ago," He said walking towards us.

I let out a chuckle of disbelief, glad to know that we had actually done it. Out of all of us, I think Superman was happiest to see Bats, and that's saying something considering how happy I am to see him.

"Bats!" Superman said and he literally ran over and engulfed Batman into a hug. "It really is you!" He hugged him for a minute longer, with Batman's uncomfortableness getting bigger and bigger.

"Umm, am I missing something?" Bats said, clearly confused as to why Superman was acting this way.

Superman must have realized what he was doing because he immediately let go of him and cleared his throat. "Sorry, but um…" He trailed off, not quite knowing what to tell Bats. We all looked at each other, not really knowing where to start with all of this. "It's a long story."

"You're not going to believe what we've been through," Shay said.

"Try me," Bats said, looking around at all of us, but his eyes lingered on me a little longer. We all walked towards him, falling in step with him and headed towards the exit. Eventually I fell into step next to him. "What happened to your arms?" He asked, looking down at the numerous cuts that were still slightly bleeding.

"Oh, you know…a Nazi tried to interrogate me," I said, looking up at him. His steps faltered for a second and his eyes widened. "Don't worry, we'll explain it all to you," I said, patting his arm.

Everyone else let out a chuckle as we walked out front and stood in front of the jets. Bats got into his jet and everyone else piled in the Javelin where we collapsed on the seats. Within minutes, we were back up in the Watchtower, standing in the kitchen trying to explain what had happened to us, but it wasn't easy. Flash was speed talking, and skipping parts of the story, Superman was arguing with him, Diana was nowhere to be found, and Bats was just getting frustrated.

I managed to sneak my way out of the kitchen and headed towards my room. The door slid open and I almost cried in relief seeing my own bed. I don't really remember the last time I actually slept. I passed the bed and walked straight into the bathroom, and got into the hot shower. I had to literally peel my uniform off from the sweat and grime that I had accumulated in the past 2 days.

When I stepped into the warm water I stood there for at least fifteen minutes, just letting the water heal my cuts and relax my sore muscles. Once I scrubbed myself clean, I dried off, threw on some sweatpants and a t shirt, and sat on my bed, brushing my hair. I'm pretty sure I was dozing off before a knock at the door woke me up.

"It's open!" I called. The door slid up and Bats stood in the doorway.

"Hey," He said, looking a little out of place against the light blue walls and soft light of my room.

"Hey," I said. "Did you finally get the whole story out of them?" I asked, trying to suppress a grin.

"Once we got Flash to finally stop talking, yes," Bats said, letting out a small chuckle of his own. He took a few steps into my room, so that he was standing in the middle of my room. I moved my legs off my bed and patted the space next to me. He looked unsure for a second before he finally sat down on the edge of the bed, facing me. "How are your arms?" He finally asked.

I glanced down at them, noticing that most of the cuts were gone. "They're fine. Most of them were healed when I took a shower but there might be a few scars." I looked up at Bats, and saw he was gently nodding his head.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment of silence.

I glanced at him, confused. "For what, my scratches? Don't be, it's not like you were the Nazi who gave them to me," I said.

"No, that's not what I'm sorry for," Bats said, looking at me. He paused for a minute, thinking about what he was going to say before he spoke again. "I wanted to apologize for me holding a gun to you."

Now I was really confused. I couldn't remember Batman ever holding a gun, let alone pointing it at me. Then the pieces clicked together and realization flooded through me. He was talking about the alternate timeline Batman.

"Bats, that wasn't you," I said. He was about to interrupt me when I stuck my finger up, stopping him. "It wasn't you. It was a different reality. You didn't know me. There was no Justice League, there was nothing ordinary, and it was just you and a few other people leading a resistance against an entire government. So an alternate version of you resorted to guns, and when some strangers showed up at your door, you pointed the gun towards us. It's to be expected," I said, shrugging. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Bats seemed taken aback, not expecting me to be so okay with this. It isn't every day that a gun gets pointed at your face. Then again, it isn't every day you get taken back to go fight along in World War II.

"You know I would never hurt you, right?" Bats asked me, looking very genuine, and I thought I saw fear flash across his face just for a brief second. This was the most vulnerable I had ever seen him. I scooted an inch closer to him and laid my hand on top of his.

"Of course I know that. I'm starting to think that any version of you wouldn't hurt me, but I definitely know this version of you wouldn't. Just like I would never hurt you," I said, hoping that he saw that I was being so genuine. His lips twitched into a small smile and his hand squeezed mine before he stood up and stood next to my bed.

"Get some sleep, Evie." He said, walking towards my door. He stopped and before he turned off the light, he turned around and looked back at me. "Thank you," He quietly said, so quietly that if I had moved at all, I wouldn't had heard it. He flipped the light switch off and the door slid shut behind him. I buried myself under my covers with a smile on my face, and when I woke up the next morning, my smile was still there.


	15. Twilight

Hey guys! Finally another update! Hopefully I can upload another one fairly soon especially since spring break is coming up. I have such big ideas for this season of JL. Reviews are always welcomed and are so exciting. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

In my life, there are very few things that I value more than coffee. Very few things. There are also very few ways to actually enjoy coffee. In my experience, coffee is usually enjoyed in the silence of an early morning after a good night's sleep. With all of this being said, there are very few people in the league who actually let me enjoy a cup in silence. J'onn and Batman. As much as I love the rest of the league, they never let me enjoy a cup in silence. Superman always had to make small talk, Flash can never really stop talking, John was usually arguing with someone, Diana always would ask questions, and Shay would try and tell battle stories. I love them, but coffee is meant to be enjoyed in silence. Currently, J'onn was with Shayera, which left my silent companion of the morning to be Batman.

Sitting in front of the computers, I sat with my cup of coffee and he sat next to me, typing away on the computer, most likely filing our last mission reports. I glanced over the reports as they flew across the screen and I sipped my coffee. Just as the last file closed, I took my last sip and set the mug on the desk.

"You know what?" I asked, finally breaking the 30 minute silence that had built up around us. Bats hummed in reply, still not taking his eyes off the monitor. "I think today is going to be a great day," I said, leaning back in the chair and crossing my legs.

Bats finally glanced over at me, before quickly looking back at the computer. "And why is that?"

I turned my chair so I was facing him. "Because…I was able to finish my coffee in silence, with no fights breaking out, no alarms going off, and nothing blew up." I spun my chair so I was facing forward again. "That all equals an exceptionally good day."

I began to stand up to put my mug in the kitchen when the Watchtower shook, throwing me back into my seat. "What the hell was that?" I asked, trying to be heard over the alarms wailing.

"It was you speaking too soon about it being a good day," Bats said, furiously typing on the computer. In seconds, Superman and Wonder Woman were looking over our shoulders at the screens, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Sensors are picking up abnormal energy surges, but I've never seen an energy source like this before," Bats told us. Shayera and J'onn flew down to where we were, coming over to see what was going on.

"I have," Superman said, frowning. "It's a boom tube."

"A what now?" I asked, looking over at him.

Before he could answer me a bright light, followed by what sounded like thunder appeared from behind us. We turned around and saw a white light forming a circle, but it wasn't just any ordinary circle. Lines started to form inside, making it look like a tunnel.

A figure started walking out of the tunnel, silhouetted by the bright light. It wasn't until the lights dimmed out I realized I was looking into the blood red eyes of Darkseid. My heart plummeted. I have never dealt with him myself, but I had heard about him, specifically his previous encounters with Superman. Him being here was going to make my good day turn into a bad one pretty quickly.

"We meet again, Kal-El," He said, smirking at Superman.

"You!" Superman yelled, lunging forward and punching Darkseid in the face multiple times, sending him backwards and hitting one of the center beams and shaking the entire Tower. The tower literally lurched to the side, causing all of us to become unsteady.

"Stop them before they knock us out of orbit!" Batman yelled. J"onn and Diana stepped forward and tried to pull Superman off of Darkseid. I took a step forward to help but Bats grabbed my wrist. "Don't. He's too strong, there isn't much you can do except probably get hurt," He said. Looking back over I saw that Diana and J'onn were struggling to restrain Superman. I may have some powers, but I'm still only human.

"Superman, don't!" Diana yelled, trying to pull Superman away from Darkseid.

"Let go!" he yelled, struggling against both of them. After a few minutes he stopped struggling, but he still glared at Darkseid.

"I see you haven't forgotten me," Darkseid said, finally able to stand up now that the Krypton wasn't beating him to an absolute pulp.

"What do you want?" He asked, while still struggling to get out of J'onn and Diana's grip.

"It pains me to admit it, but I need your help," Darkseid said stepping forward. "My latest skirmish with New Genesis has left my military forces at considerably less than full strength."

Superman finally stopped moving and Diana and J'onn cautiously let him go. He straightened himself up and looked right at Darkseid. "And why should we help you?"

"Because my enemy is your enemy." Darkseid lifted a remote in his hand and pressed a button, causing a red hologram to appear. "Even as we speak, Apokolips is being assimilated by the Kryptonian menace known as Brainiac." On the hologram, Brainiac appeared, staring at all of us with his empty eyes.

"You're lying." We all looked at Superman, who still looked furious. "I destroyed him."

Darkseid changed the image so that it showed some kind of space craft. "Apparently he is harder to kill than you realized. You know his pattern, Kal-El. Once he's finished siphoning all of the memory banks and technology of my planet…"

"He'll annihilate it." Superman paused, thinking about the situation that was being presented to him. He looked back at Darkseid, "Good."

"What?" Shayera said, at the same time that Diana and J'onn both voiced how surprised they were. I even raised an eyebrow at Superman's behavior. If he was willing to let an entire planet be destroyed then things were even worse between him and Darkseid than I thought. The only one who didn't say anything was Batman, but even I could tell that his brain was working in overdrive trying to process the entire situation.

Darkseid pressed a button on his remote causing the boom tube to appear again. "You may not care about what happens to me or my world, but know this; if Braniac isn't stopped countless more millions will perish. Think about it." And with those chilling last words, he stepped into the boom tube and disappeared.

It was dead silent for an entire minute as we all tried to process what Darkseid told us. We could either help the bad guy save his planet, or be petty and not help him and let the even worse bad guy kill millions more people. In my head there wasn't a real discussion to be had, but due to his personal reasons, I could see Superman's reluctance to helping Darkseid.

I looked up at Batman and we exchanged a look, both of us knowing that it would take a lot of convincing in order to even get Superman to even consider this. Looking troubled, Superman tried to walk off the deck, but Shayera stopped him.

"So what are you saying? That you'd sacrifice millions of lives just because you don't like this guy?" She asked him, gesturing wildly with her arms.

"You don't know Darkseid like I do," Superman said, finally speaking after a few minutes of complete silence.

"We know he used you, humiliated you, brainwashed you, wound you up like a tin soldier and set you lose against Earth," Bats said, finally stepping out from the shadows we were partially standing in, until he was standing right in front of Superman. "Cry me a river." I rolled my eyes at his blunt ways, asking myself if all men were like this, or just this one that for some reason I decided to really like. That is, until I saw the furious look cross Superman's face again and stepped forward so that I was standing next to Bats, just in case Superman wanted to punch him…through his head. It's not like I could do much if he did decide to do that, but hey, I could be there for moral support.

Batman continued on, "On the outside chance that this isn't another one of his schemes, we have to take action. So I suggest you get over it," He said while giving the infamous bat-glare. The same glare that made criminals shrink into their slimy homes and never want to come out again. I, again, rolled my eyes knowing that while this was pretty effective it wasn't the nicest way to get Superman to do something.

J'onn stepped forward and put a hand on Superman's shoulder. Knowing him, he was probably going to try and find a nicer way to persuade Superman. "Brainiac has already destroyed countless civilizations and now he threatens another. Do you want this to be the legacy of your people?" Ouch, a bit of a low blow, that actually wasn't any nicer than Bats persuasion.

"I'm telling you, there's something wrong with this whole scenario," Superman protested. He thought for a moment and took another step towards Bats. "Alright, we'll play Darkseid's game. But I need the two of you to do something for me," He said, looking at the both of us. Me? What did I do to get dragged into this? I raised my eyebrows as Superman walked away and spoke quietly with Diana.

"So much for a quiet day," Bats said and I snorted quietly, glad to see that he could be as sarcastic as I usually am in situations like this. Superman walked back over and past us.

"Batman, come with me, I'll explain everything to you. Evie, go get suited up and get ready to go," He said, sounding more authoritative than ever. Bats went with him while I just stood there, waiting to leave. I was already in my suit, with my staff attached to my waist. There wasn't anything else for me to really do. J'onn and Shayera had gone off to get the jet ready to go, leaving only Diana with me.

"Are you coming with us?" I asked her. She regarded me for a moment before answering.

"Yes. Is that going to be a problem?" I noticed her clipped tones and took a deep breath before walking up to her.

"Diana, look. I know we didn't really get off on the right foot, and I know we don't always agree with one another, but I want to put our differences aside. Maybe become, you know, closer friends?" I said, noticing that the end of my sentence formed a question without me meaning to. She studied me for a second before her features softened.

"I'd like that," She said, giving me a small smile. I returned the gesture, just as Bats came back over to us.

"Superman is going to make another one of those boom tubes. We're going to go through it and see if we can find someone named Orion."

"Why? What are they going to do?" I asked

"Orion seems to be one of the people fighting against Darkseid. Superman wasn't too clear though," Bats trailed off, not even finishing the sentence.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Great, we're going somewhere new, to find someone new, who we don't even know will help us. This should be fun." Bats rolled his eyes and walked to the middle of the room and Diana and I followed.

Another white light appeared and the tube appeared right in front of us, and for a second we all just stood there, looking at it. "And we're sure this is taking us to the right place, right?" I asked. Bats and Diana looked at me, but didn't say anything. "You're silence is comforting," I said, rolling my eyes again.

Diana was the first to step into the tunnel, then I did, with Bats right behind me. Now, I have been through an annoyingly large amount of portals since joining the Justice League, but this one was the worst. We weren't actually walking on solid ground, but it felt like it. It seemed like we had been walking forever, but at the same time before we knew it we could see the other side of the tunnel. I felt myself becoming more nauseas as I took each step. Eventually I took a step down from the tunnel and tried opening my eyes, but quickly having to shut them again due to the blinding sunlight. From next to me I heard Bats groaning and knew that he had probably been effected the same as me.

After a few seconds I opened my eyes again and looked at Diana, who seemed perfectly fine and was looking at the both of us. Bats straightened himself up from the bench he was leaning on. "Well that was fun," He said.

Bats used the remote Superman gave him to close the boom tube and we took a second to look around us. We were standing in a field of what looked like old ruins. Giant stone pieces were coming out of the ground, but it didn't give me a feeling that something bad happened to cause the ruins. Actually, looking around some more, I realized the whole planet looked absolutely beautiful. With bright blue skies, tall mountains, and trees that were at least a hundred years old judging from the size of them. This planet looked like it came straight out from one of those nature magazines.

"So let me get this straight…Orion is Darkseid's own son?" Diana asked, trying to understand the information that Superman had given Batman before we had left.

"New Genesis and Apokolips have been at war for centuries. Apparently Darkseid and High Father exchanged sons as some kind of peace treaty," Bats said, looking at the both of us. Diana and I both gave him a look and he shook his head. "Yeah, sounds wacky to me too. But with a conflict of this scale, we could use some back up."

"So where do we find this Orion?" Diana asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"And how do we know he'll even help us?" I asked. Before anyone could answer, the ground started shaking, causing us to lose our footing. Cracks started forming under us, and the rocks flew everywhere, causing us to be thrown in different directions. Bats and Diana landed next to each other, while I was thrown in the opposite direction. I cartwheeled back into a standing position and got my staff out, waiting to see what caused this mini earthquake.

This form started coming out of the ground and became bigger and bigger, until it towered over us. I'm going to describe it in three words. Worm. With. Teeth. Because that's basically what it was. It had green eyes, and teeth and fangs that was taller than a normal sized man. Oh, and did I mention it had arms too? Cause it does.

"Some welcoming committee," I murmured. The creature roared and lunged forward towards Diana and Bats, but its large head obstructed my view of them. Acting fast, I jumped on the monsters back and ran up towards its head. There were going to be very few week points on a monster this big, so I might as well start with the eyes.

It suddenly reared back up, nearly throwing me off of him, but I managed to barely hold on and kept climbing up to his eyes. As I was right behind his eye I took out my staff, about to poke it. It must have felt me though, because he swung his head forward, throwing me off. I passed right by his fang and grabbed onto is, swinging myself around and found myself next to Diana on the creature's mouth.

"Where's Batman?" I asked as she struggled to open up the creature's mouth.

"He's inside the mouth," She said, trying to pull on the teeth as hard as she could.

"He's what?!" I yelled. I look at the teeth and noticed that they were at least three feet thick. There wasn't much that was going to penetrate them. Putting my hands on one of the teeth, I attempted to freeze it, but before I could even cover it in frost, I heard a beeping from inside. Uh-oh.

An explosion went of inside the mouth, causing us all to be thrown back by the force of the blast, Batman included. I hit the ground and he landed right on top of me, knocking the wind out of me. I groaned as he rolled off of me and looked down at my uniform, which was now covered in the same slime that he was covered in.

Diana ran over to us. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Peachy," Bats said, sitting up and coughing.

The monster roared and came after us again, but this time Diana picked up a large piece of the ruins and stuck it in the creature's mouth. His teeth easily crushed it, but it gave us enough time to get out of the way. Diana flew up and wrapped her lasso around the creature's head and tried pulling it away.

"Her lasso isn't going to do anything," I said, seeing her struggle with holding the monster by herself. "Stay here," I said to Bats and I ran up to the monster, right next to one of its arms, which is what was keeping the monster out of the ground. If I could knock it off balance it would make it easier to defeat.

I started forming a patch of ice underneath of the foot, hoping that it would make the monster slip. I though it worked at first when the monster lifted his arm up, but I quickly realized I was wrong. The arm came down and whacked me back, causing me to land into the side of a large ruin that was protruding a couple feet from where the monster was. I bounced off the ruin and landed on the ground on my back.

A few seconds later there was a thud next to me. I squinted my eyes and rolled my head over to the side, where Diana was now lying next to me on the ground, completely knocked out.

The monster hovered over the both of us, mouth wide open, literally about to eat us. Just as he was over top of us, I squeezed my eyes shut and shielded my face, figuring that death by weird space worm may not be the worst way to go. At least my obituary would sound cool.

After a few seconds I realized that I wasn't dead and peeked an eye open to see that there was some type of fog coming out of the creatures mouth and he was roaring in pain.

Suddenly a man in a red mask and white tunic with a shield connected to his one arm ran over to us and scooped Diana up and put her over his shoulder. "Get up and follow me," He said while he continued running.

I blinked before scrambling off the ground and sprinting after him, only slowing down when we ran over to Batman.

"This way, that buzz bomb won't hold him for long," the new guy said before continuing his run. Bats stood there for a second, probably deciding whether to trust this guy or not, and I grabbed his arm as I ran past him, forcing him to follow me.

"Are you okay?" He asked while running next to me.

"Just peachy," I said, repeating his words from earlier. We made it to the edge of the clearing and ran in the woods, having to scale and climb over tree roots and rocks on our way down.

We kept running until we got to a hill, and made our way up, far away from the woods where the creature was. "You should be safe here," the guy in the red said. He set Diana down on the ground and she started coming back around. She opened her eyes and looked at all of us. I smiled and put my hand down, hauling her off the ground and helped her stand up.

She rubbed her head for a second before turning to the man in red. "Who are you?" she asked him. We all turned to look at him and he hesitated before answering.

"They call me Forager," He said. I finally took in his appearance and saw that all of his skin was a dark red. He wore a white tunic with a black belt around his waist, his shield slung over his back.

"Do you know anyone named Orion?" Bats asked him.

"Orion?" Forager said, taking a few steps back from us. "I am just an unworthy bug. Orion is a God, far above us," He said, putting his head down.

The three of us exchanged a look before looking back at Forager. Diana was the one who stepped forward. "You're too modest. You've shown courage, compassion-"

"No, no, you don't understand," Forager interrupted her. "All the Gods are far above us," He said, turning around and pointing up to the sky. We looked up to where he was pointing to and waaaaay up in the sky we saw it. A bright, golden city literally sitting on top of clouds. It literally made me lightheaded, looking up that high for so long.

We all stared at the city for a few moments, knowing that it really was a home worthy of Gods, even from all the way down here.

"Well, I guess we know where we're going now," I said.

"I'm gonna need a longer grapple," Bats said, still looking up at the city. I started laughing and Diana stepped away to speak with Forager again.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride," I said, taking a step away from him. Bats looked at me, very confused.

"What?" He said.

I formed a disc of ice, much larger than what I usually make and stepped on it. "I'll give you a ride," I repeated, looking at Bats. He looked at me, then down at my disc, and back at me again, not saying a word. "Fine, if you want Diana to carry you then by all means, go with her," I said, smirking a little and knowing that Bats absolutely hates having to be carried like that.

"Fine," He said gruffly. "But what am I going to hold onto?"

I looked at him for a second, blinking before I responded. "Hold onto?" I asked.

"Yeah, like, a railing or something."

I gave a snort of disbelief. "Railings?"

"Yes railings. I've seen the way you fly around on those things. They aren't safe."

"What, you don't trust me?" I asked, teasing him a little bit.

"No, I do trust you. I just don't trust an open disc, and I don't know if you've noticed but I can't fly."

I'm sure I looked hilarious, with my eyes wide and my mouth floundering in disbelief that the dark and scary Batman was asking for railings. "Ok…I'll put railings on." With a flick of my wrist railings as tall as Batman's waist sprouted up from the disc. "Better?"

Not looking at me he cautiously stepped onto the disc and held onto the railing. "Thanks."

Shaking my head in disbelief I turned to Diana. "You ready?" She nodded and took off the ground, with Bats and I behind her.

We climbed through the air, climbing higher and higher until we reached the level of the city. Diana and I leveled out and flew next to each other, taking in the golden city.

"Such grandeur, it even outshines Themyscira," Diana said, looking around at the giant buildings. Even I have to admit the architecture was amazing. It truly looked like where Gods could live. "I've never seen the like."

"We can take in the sights some other time. Let's concentrate on finding Orion," Bats said. I turned back to glance at him and saw he did seem much more relaxed now…well at least as relaxed as he could be as Batman.

"It's nice, but it's too bright. Why is it so sunny? Don't they have clouds here?" I asked, squinting into the bright sun. It was very rare that Gotham was this bright. I wasn't used to it, especially since I usually worked at night.

We were silent for a few minutes, still taking in the sights, and thinking about where we could find Orion, when a blur rushed past us, going in the other direction as we were. Glancing back I saw that it was someone flying and not thinking anything about it, kept on going.

A few seconds later the man who flew past us showed up right next to Diana, and started talking to us. He wore a white suit, with a black and red symbol on his chest, complete with flaming orange hair that stuck out of his headpiece.

"I've never seen bugs like you before," He said, obviously trying to be charming, but in that annoying sense that he was better than us.

"We're not bugs," Diana said, trying to ignore him as best as she could.

"Well you're certainly not Gods," He said. I heard a smack, followed by the man shooting off in front of us.

"Hey!" Diana yelled before shooting off after the guy, who, Athena help him… dared to smack her butt. "Come back here!" she called as she chased him. For a small seconds, Bats and I didn't quite know what to do.

"Did he just…" I trailed off,

"Yep."

"She's gonna…"

"Probably."

"Should we help her?"

Bats gave me a look, "She most likely doesn't need it."

I looked at him and rolled my eyes, "Hold on to that railing." I shot off, following Diana as she weaved in between buildings and through alleys trying to catch up to this guy. At one point they dove so fast that I thought they were both going to hit the ground until they both pulled up and blew past a small group of people. "Where is this guy taking us?" I said.

As we came out of the dive we soared back up, circling around the top of an extremely tall building and spiraled back down. "How long is thing going to last?" I called back to Bats.

"Stay with them," He said and he jumped over the railings and used his cape to flutter down to a ledge. Without the extra weight of Bats on my board I was fast enough to catch up with Diana, so I was flying right next to her. We rounded the corner of another building and saw the guy we were chasing plummet to the ground, probably due to the black cloth that was wrapped around him. Diana dove to save him while I looked around, wondering where the black cloth came from. Bats was standing on a ledge, cape-less, and I realized that he had thrown his cape at the guy.

I flew over so that I was hovering in front of him. "Need another ride?" I asked. He lightly shook his head but I saw a light trace of a smile on his face. Once he was on my board, inside of the railings, I flew down and landed on the ground next to Diana. She was holding the guy in her arms while he was squirming, trying to break free.

"Hold still, we won't hurt you," She said while trying to get the man to calm down.

"No, you most certainly will not," A voice said behind us. We turned around and saw a man on some sort of flying chair, with a full weapons system attached to it. Isn't that just great? This man could easily rival Batman in size and he didn't seem to be playing around. "Let him go. Now." He said, giving us a glare that also could rival Batman's. It obviously wasn't as intimidating, but it was pretty close.

Diana let go of the man in her arms and he whipped the cape off his head and threw it down to the ground. "Orion, these people-"

"Wait, are you Orion?" I asked, stepping past Diana and Bats so that I was face to face with him.

"Who are you?" He suspiciously asked.

"My name is Evie, this is Wonder Woman and Batman," I said, gesturing to both of them. "We are friends of Superman. We've come to ask for your assistance on an incident occurring on Apokolips."

He regarded me for a second before speaking again. "Why were you chasing Lightray around the city?" Assuming that Lightray was the redhead standing next to Diana, I gave him a pointed look.

"Lightray wasn't too…hospitable to us upon our arrival. Perhaps he would like to explain further?" I said, trying to distract Orion from me so that I wasn't thrown in jail for being disrespectful to a potential God.

Orion did turn his attention to Lightray, who looked sheepish under his gaze. "Well, you see, we were flying…and then there was talking…and then…" Lightray trialed off, not wanting to say anything now that the glare was turned to him.

"Enough," was all Orion had to say to make Lightray stop his rambling. It seems like this sort of thing wasn't anything new. Orion turned his attention back to me and looked me up and down for what seemed like forever, but after a few seconds he relaxed his stance on the chair. "Well, welcome to New Genesis guests. I would like to apologize for any disrespect you may have been shown upon your arrival here."

"Of course. We appreciate it. The matter we need to discuss with you is quite urgent," I said, wondering if Diana or Bats were ever going to say anything. As if she could read my mind, Diana spoke up, giving Orion a brief summary of the situation. While she was talking I stepped around her and picked Bat's cape off the ground, shook it off, and handed it to him. With a small nod of thanks, he swung it around so that it was attached to the rest of his uniform.

"All right, I'll take you to meet High Father," Orion said. His conversation with Diana must have been over. "Follow me," He said turning around and flying in the opposite direction, with Lightray following behind him. Diana immediately followed him, leaving Bats and I on the roof. I made a disc underneath of me and stepped on. I glanced back to make sure Bats was behind me but he still stood on the roof, giving me a very pointed look.

I huffed and made railings like before and then he stepped on. "I am never letting you live this down," I chuckled, taking off and following Diana.

"Just focus on catching up," he said but I could hear a trace of a smile in his voice. We flew for a few minutes until we came upon, what I'm assuming, is High Father's palace. The building is made of gold and it's huge, truly fit for a god.

We landed on the ground and Orion undid himself from the seat he was in. "Follow me, I know where he is." He turned around and we jogged after him, entering a courtyard with a garden in it. The first thing I noticed were the children, all standing around different plants and it looked like they were using magic to make them grow. I surveyed the scene and saw who I assumed to be High Father, and he certainly looked like how you would think. He had bright white hair and a beard, and bright blue eyes, eyes that looked like they could see through your soul. He wore long robes with a purple cape and carried a golden staff with him.

"High Father!" Orion called as we jogged up to the older man. "I have urgent news from Apokolips."

High Father looked over us carefully, clearly being able to tell that we were not from around here.

"Indeed," He said, looking back to his son.

"We're friends of Superman," Bats said.

"He sent us to warn you that Darkseid is under attack on Apokolips," Diana added.

The mood around us instantly shifted when she said Darkseid's name. The children instantly looked terrified, some backing up as if we had just threatened to hit them. Even High Father look unnerved by hearing his name.

"Do not speak that name in front of the children, you'll frighten them," High Father said, sending a small glance back towards the children.

"They should be afraid," Orion called out. By High Father's reaction I could tell that they have had this debate before. "For too long the shadow of Apokolips has threatened New Genesis."

Displeased by these words, High father walked past us. "Come with me," he said. "Would you excuse us, children?" he called back to the kids who were huddled together and quietly whispering. I sent them a small smile and turned back to follow the group who was now walking away from the courtyard.

We were now a good distance away from the children before we stopped and stood in a half circle around High Father. "Well," He asked Orion.

"Let me mount an army." I looked over at him, not expecting that to come out of his mouth and I clearly wasn't the only one. Diana and Lightray looked at him too. "While Darkseid is under siege, we will attack, and end his reign of terror once and for all!"

Diana now fully turned towards him. "Superman asked for your help, he doesn't want you to start a war."

"Don't be so sure," Orion said, glaring at her. I quirked an eyebrow at that, how much did Orion know about Superman's past with Darkseid?

"You forget," High Father said, quickly interrupting whatever it was Diana was about to retaliate with. "In the name of peace we swore not to interfere on Apokolips. We made a pact."

"As long as Darkseid is in power there can be no real peace." Orion argued. It was easy to tell that he was getting fed up with this argument, an argument I'm sure they had had a thousand times over.

High Father let out a sigh and closed his eyes, whether it was to calm down or because he was tired it was hard to tell. "There is truth in what you say," he said.

"Then give the order!"

"No!" High father said, raising his voice for the first time. "Though I love you like a son, you are too young to remember the endless bloodshed we endured. Before making such a terrible decision I must commune with the Source," He said, walking away from us and heading towards the castle. "You will await my verdict."

We watched him walk away and I leaned over to Batman. "He's not going to take no for an answer, is he?" I whispered.

Bats shook his head no while continuing to look at Orion. Orion shook his head and walked away from us, obviously ticked off, which became evident when he punched a hole in a passing pillar as he walked by.

"Should we follow him?" I asked. Diana looked at Batman, waiting to see what he thought of all of this.

"Yes, but keep a distance, we don't know what kind of a temper he has." With that we slowly started walking, following Orion to what appeared to be the area we landed at when we were first on our way to meet High Father.

We were silent as we looked around the city and took in the grandeur of it for the first time. The buildings had incredible detail to them and everything was either gold or had bright beautiful colors.

Eventually we caught up to Orion and he looked like he was messing with his flying chair thing. I walked towards the edge of the city and looked down at the beautiful forest and trees that we had been in earlier.

"Those people we met down below, who are they?" Diana asked Orion.

"They're not important, just bugs," Orion said, as carelessly as he could as he strapped his gear on.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. This guys 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude was starting to get really annoying.

"And where are you going?" Batman said. I turned and saw Orion hovering above the ground with a very determined look on his face.

"To face Darkseid," he said. I knew it, he definitely wasn't one to follow orders.

"But High Father ordered you to wait," Diana said. She took a few steps toward him until she was right in front of him. "Why are you so eager to fight?"

"I have my reasons," He said glaring at us.

"That's not an answer," I mumbled, but Orion heard me. He glared at me before looking back at everyone else.

"Stand aside," He said, looking between the three of us.

"We can't let you go," Diana said, taking a small step back and positioning herself into a defensive stance.

"Try to stop me," Orion said as he pushed a button on his harness. Lightning crackled and a Boom Tube was created behind the three of us. Orion pushed past us, knocking us all to the ground, except when I fell to the ground I knocked my head against it, hard. I groaned and slowly blinked my eyes, the brightness of the city hurting them.

"Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me…real hard," I heard Bats yell before he jumped through the tube. Diana followed right after him, leaving me on the ground. I got to my feet as quickly as I could and ran towards the portal but by the time I got there it was too late, it had already closed.

I stared at where the portal had closed for a second in disbelief. "They left me. They just freaking left me!" I yelled while rubbing my head where I had hit it. "How the hell did they LEAVE ME?" I continued to yell and threw my hands up.

"Are you alright?" A voice behind me asked. I whipped around and saw Lightray.

Rolling my eyes I shook my head. "No, I'm really not okay. My friends left me. They literally left me here on a planet and didn't even bother to make sure I was with them. They followed freaking Orion through some stupid portal thing and left me here!"

"Alright, alright, just calm down. No need for a pretty girl like you to get all worked up. At least they left you here with me," Lightray said, sending a wink my way. I never thought it was possible to see red, but I'm pretty sure I was at this point.

I stalked forward, "Listen, you annoying little-" but I was cut off when a loud boom sounded above us and the wind picked up like crazy.

"What's going on?" Lightray shouted over the high winds.

"I don't know. We need to get to High Father," I yelled back.

"All right, hold on!" Lightray said and he grabbed me by the waist and we were flying as best as we could through the wind, trying to dodge debris at every chance we had. Now usually, I would have punched him so hard his children would feel it, but considering the circumstances I doubted that I would be able to fly anyway. It felt like hurricane force winds, and the lightning was close enough that every hair on my body was on end.

We barely made it to the palace and found High Father looking up at the sky. "High Father, what is it?" Lightray yelled down to him. We landed and quickly ran over to his side.

"Quickly, get everyone to the escape pods," High Father ordered. Lightray looked like he wanted to protest but High Father kept speaking, "We have no choice, we have to evacuate the city, now go!" Lightray flew off but I stayed where I was, not really knowing what to do. "You can help too," He said, pointing to what I originally thought were statues surrounding the city. Apparently they were escape pods, large enough to fit a couple people in at a time.

I nodded and rushed over to a group of the remaining pods. "Alright everyone, quickly!" I yelled. I helped dozens of people get into the pods which sent them down to the main land.

"Help, please!" I whipped around and saw a small child with his leg stuck underneath a fallen pillar. I ran over to him.

"Hi sweetie, my name is Evie," I said, trying to calm down the crying child. "I'm going to lift this off your leg, and I want you to run straight to the pods, can you do that?" I asked. The boy nodded his head and I smiled at him. Okay Eves, you can do this. Just lift a giant pole off this kid so he can live, it's just like in your workouts. I got into position and lifted the pillar up enough for the kid's leg to slip through. "Run!" I grunted, still holding the pillar to make sure it didn't fall on top of him again. He scampered away and I let the pillar drop with a thud.

A loud crash sounded behind me and I looked up to see the top half of a giant statue falling right at me. I quickly rolled out of the way but totally misjudged how close I was to the edge of the city because, as luck would have it, I was free falling in the air.

With the wind blowing as hard as it was I was just continuously flipping through the air, the ground quickly spiraling towards me and I had no control over my powers. I couldn't make a disc to land on, I couldn't sense if there was any water around me at all, and I knew that time was running out.

I closed my eyes, prayed to whoever would listen, and threw my arms out, hoping for the best. My back landed on something hard and the wind was knocked out of me. I opened my eyes and turned my head to the side, grateful to see a patch of ice was under me and not the ground. Go me! I thought. Apparently I didn't have as much luck as I thought because a sharp crack cut through the wind and I down and saw the ice was cracking.

The next thing I know I'm falling through a tree hitting every branch on my way down until I land on the ground, the air being knocked out of me again. I laid there for a few minutes, making sure nothing in me was broken and to make sure that nothing else was going to happen to me.

The wind continued to howl and the lighting got worse. I had no idea what the rest of the League was up to, or where they were, so there wasn't much I could do. Sighing, I got to my feet and started walking around the forest, dodging swaying branches and stray twigs that were blowing in my path.

I saw a clearing up ahead and started jogging towards it, hoping to either see the League or the people of New Genesis. Hell, at this point I'd be happy to see the worm thing again. Just as I got to the edge of the clearing there was a huge boom that shook everything from the trees to the ground. I looked up and saw what looked like a comet exploding, leaving giant chunks of rock hanging in the air and pink and purple gases were lighting up the sky.

20 bucks says the League had something to do with that, I thought, smirking. Now I just need to find them. I continued wandering for a little bit, having literally no idea where I was going, when suddenly I heard voices coming from my left. I stopped walking and listened, hoping to try and recognize who the voices belonged to. They were too far away so I quietly jogged towards them. Even if I had no idea who was talking, they should at least be able to help me find my way to somewhere.

The faint voices grew louder until I could distinguish what they were saying. "You know something, Bruce? You're not always right." Bruce? Bats?! I ran faster until I hit the edge of the woods and saw Batman and Superman looking over the cliff.

"I may not always be right but neither are you. You were so involved in your mission to defeat Darkseid that you didn't think of the consequences!" Bats yelled at him.

"And what consequences are those?" Superman asked, yelling back at him.

Bats took a step up and poked a finger into Superman's chest. "Evie's gone, High Father said so himself. Nobody has seen her. For all you know she could be-'

"Right here!" I called out, finally stepping out of the shadows and into the soft light cast by the setting sun. As nice as it is to see Bats acting so concerned for me, it wouldn't be good if he had a fist sized hole in his face.

Both men whipped around to look at me. Superman still looked pissed, but there was a little relief in his eyes. It was harder to read Bats' expression, but his shoulders immediately let out the tension so that they slumped a little bit. I walked forward so that now I was standing in between them. "So…how'd it go?" I asked.

Superman glared at Bats again and walked off. Bats now rounded on me. "Where have you been?" he asked, looking me over for injuries.

"Well, after I fell off the city I landed in a forest so I've kind of been walking around aimlessly for a little bit," I said.

"What do you mean you fell off the city?" he asked, looking me in the eyes and then immediately looking me over for more injuries.

"I fell off the edge. It was pretty hectic especially since you freaking left me here," I said giving him a pointed look "and I wasn't watching where I was going so I freefell for a little bit. No big deal. I'm not hurt except for my shoulder a little-OUCH!"

As soon as I said my shoulder hurt he started feeling it and pulling on my arm, which did hurt. A lot. I slapped his arm away and rubbed my shoulder. "Easy, I just fell 12,000 feet."

Bats looked at me in concern at first, but then amusement slid onto his face. "You just slapped me."

"You just hurt my shoulder," I countered. After a few seconds a smile made its way onto my face and I let out a small laugh, and it looked like a small smile had made its way onto Bats' face as well. I looked past Bats and up at the sky and the rocks now floating in space. "So what happened?"

"Long story short, Braniac and Darkseid were working together until Darkseid betrayed him. Then they wanted to use Superman for his DNA. Then we showed up and stopped them."

I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "And what else happened? I've never seen Superman that mad before."

Batman took a second to answer. "He was about to kill Darkseid. He was close, until I stopped him. If I hadn't…he would have gone too far. His judgement has been clouded this entire mission. He was too emotional and we all got hurt because of it. Hell, he almost got you killed," he trailed off.

I was silent for a moment, drinking in everything that he had just said and realized that this was the most emotion I had heard from him in a while. He seemed really upset about something but I couldn't tell what it was from. Choosing my words carefully I looked at him. "He'll thank you one day for stopping him. This was personal for him. He lost everything to Braniac. Of course he's going to get emotional. You of all people should know that," I said.

He stiffened at my last sentence but other than that he didn't show anything else. "He knows who you are," I quietly said, waiting for his reaction. He looked over at me for a second and then back at the sky.

"He has x-ray vision. He can see who's behind the mask." I nodded and didn't say anything. "I trust very few people with that information. He's one of them…and so are you."

My eyes widened and I looked at him, truly not knowing what to say. He laughed through his nose at my shocked face. "C'mon Eves, you've known for a while now. You haven't said anything and I appreciate that more than you know."

I just kept looking at him because I really didn't know what to say. I don't think I've ever been this speechless in my life. But the longer I looked at Bats, the less confident he looked and I could see that he was about to shut down.

"NobodyhascalledmeEvessincemyfamilydied," I blurted out. Bats' eyebrows furrowed in confusion because he clearly didn't understand what I said. I cleared my throat and said it again slowly. "Um, I haven't been called Eves since my parents and sister died. That was my nickname and it kind of died with them, but you just called me that."

"Evelyn, if you don't want me to-" he started but I cut him off.

"No! That's the thing, I want you to. You trust me enough with your biggest secret, and I trust you to call me by a nickname. We trust each other, right?" I asked, all of a sudden unsure.

Bats studied me for a moment before answering, "Right." He said, giving me another small smile. I returned the gesture before turning around and looked at the large group of people who had gathered around the League.

I nodded over to them, "Should we go see what's going on?"

Bats nodded and headed over to the others, with me following behind him. I stopped and thought about what had just happened and the biggest smile split my face in half. Maybe we were both on the path to something absolutely amazing. Despite everything else that had happened, today was a great day.


	16. An Un-happy Birthday

I was standing in the woods by myself. A storm was raging in the pitch black sky above me sending flashes of lightning to illuminate the area around me. On instinct I began to run, having no way of knowing where I was going. I ran and ran until it felt like my lungs would explode. Rain was pelting my face plastering my hair to my forehead but I continued to run. I only started slowing down when I got to the edge of the tree line. Catching my breath I walked out of the woods, and saw an empty road. I started walking towards the road when another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, except this time, it hit a tree, causing it to burn and fall right in the middle of the road. I continued to stare at the burning tree until the squealing of tires broke my concentration. I looked to my right and through the rain I saw a car, speeding down the road…heading straight for the tree. I tried to call out but the wind and rain drowned out my voice. It felt like it happened in slow motion. The car hit the tree, making a sickening crunch and flipping over and over until it came to a screeching stop. I tried running towards it but I wasn't getting anywhere, no matter how hard I ran. I heard a girl screaming but I still couldn't get there in time. The screaming got louder and louder until a bright light surrounded the car as it exploded.

I sat straight up in bed, cold sweat dripping off of me, and my heart pounding causing me to gasp for air. I slowly realized that I was safe in my room at the Watchtower and I slumped back onto my pillows. I looked over at my alarm clock, the bright red numbers reading 6:18. I rolled my eyes and launched myself out of bed, considering it was too late to go back to sleep. Deciding to get up for the day I grabbed my uniform and jumped in the shower, the hot water washing away the memories of my dream. I got dressed, dried my hair, and pulled my hair up into a pony tail, with a few strands framing my face.

I walked out of my room and down the hallway, still thinking about the dream. I haven't had a dream like that in years, which I was extremely grateful for. But I couldn't help but wonder what suddenly brought it on. I thought about the past few days, trying to remember something that would trigger these memories to suddenly surface. I had a feeling that I was forgetting something, but every time I felt like I had gotten close to remembering, it slipped away. I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn't even realize I had made it to the kitchen and had already poured myself a cup of coffee. Blinking out of my daze I figured that my dream was just a dream and I shouldn't dwell on it.

Sipping my coffee I leaned against the counter, looking around the immaculately clean counters, thinking that something was out of place. I glanced around again, finally realizing what was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. Sure it was early in the morning, but all of us tended to get an early start on the day, except for Bats and Flash. Bats usually woke up late since he went to bed late, and Flash because he is essentially a teenager trapped in an adult's body. I pushed myself off the counter and headed towards the hallway. I peeked my head into each door, looking for anyone to ask them what was going on, but there wasn't anyone in sight.

A blur of red and a gust of wind whipped past me down the hallway and turned the hallway. I rolled my eyes at Flash and decided to follow him, maybe he knows where everyone is. I crept down the hallway and turned where Flash went. One of the hall doors was cracked open and I could hear voices inside.

"Shh, she's going to hear us…"

"That's kind of the point, she has to know where we are for it to be a surprise…"

"Would you shut up? She's right outside!"

Furrowing my brow I slowly pushed the door open stepped in and was greeted by the other seven members of the League standing around a table that held a cake and a few presents, and the floor looked like someone had thrown up balloons and confetti.

"Surprise!" everyone yelled (well, everyone except Bats who stood in the darkest corner of the room, glaring at the balloons that were touching his cape). I jumped, a little startled by the loud noise.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Happy Birthday Evie!" Superman said, quickly walking forward, picking me up, and engulfing me in a hug. Birthday? I glanced at my watch and saw the date. Crap, it was my birthday. Now the dream makes sense. Looking at my confused face Superman looked confused himself. "Didn't you know it was your birthday?"

I forced a smile onto my face, "Of course I did, you guys just really caught me by surprise, that's all." Everyone chuckled and came forward, wishing me a happy birthday and giving me hugs. Again, all except Bats, who merely gave me a small nod before sweeping out of the room unnoticed.

Outside I was all smiles and gratitude, but inside I was panicking. I hated my birthday. It wasn't a good day for me, all it did was bring up memories I wish I could forget, hence the nightmare last night, but I couldn't tell the team that now. Especially since they went through all the trouble of a party.

Flash was the last one to come over and hug me. "Happy Birthday best friend!" He yelled directly in my ear. I giggled and hugged him back.

"Thanks, Flash," I mumbled.

Flash pulled away from me but kept his hands on my arms. "Hey, are you okay? You don't look too good."

I searched his eyes for a minute before answering, "Yeah, I'm just tired, that's all." I glanced back at the table, "Why don't I go ahead and open my gifts, yeah?" Flash's face lit up like a kid on Christmas. You would have thought that he was the one opening them.

Twenty minutes later I had opened my gifts, which included a new pair of fingerless gloves from Superman, a book on different mythologies from Diana, a new jacket from Shay, another book on tactical patterns from Lantern, a soothing CD from J'onn (to help me stay calm), and a promise from Flash to get me dinner from anywhere I want and he would hand deliver it to me (I had a feeling I would want some authentic Italian here in the next couple of days). I noticed that I didn't get anything from Bats, but that didn't surprise me considering he didn't stick around for this. Despite the fact he wasn't here I still felt a small pang in my chest.

"Well Evie, best birthday ever?" Flash asked me around a mouthful of cake. I looked around the room at the League, who were all waiting for my response.

"It's definitely up there. Thank you everyone, it means a lot." I said. Logically it had to have been one of the best ones I've had, especially since I never actually celebrate it. I wanted to make sure they knew that I was extremely thankful for their considerations. Even if I hate my birthday that doesn't mean I have to be cold towards those who want to celebrate it.

"Any specific plans for your birthday tonight, Evie?" Diana asked, looking at me over the rim of her glass she was sipping out of.

"No, not really," I said. Yes, I definitely do, I thought, I just don't want you to know about it.

Eventually the party dispersed, with everyone going their separate ways to do their own thing. The dishes had been cleaned up, the chairs put back, and the decorations thrown away. It looked like the whole thing had never even happened. Finally I was the only one in the room and for the first time all day I was left alone with my thoughts. How could I forget about today, the most important day in my life? I questioned. Wasn't it bad enough that I already felt guilty about it being my birthday, now I feel guilty about forgetting it too.

I turned the lights off and walked into the hallway. No one was in sight so I went back down to my room, dropped my gifts off, and went to the main control room. Flash and Lantern were talking quietly and J'onn was looking out the window, there was no one else there.

"Does anyone care if I borrow the jet?" I asked.

Flash and Lantern both looked up at me. "No, of course not, Evie. Go have fun with your plans!" Flash said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. I gave him a small smile and rolled my eyes. Of course he would think I have a date or something.

I walked down to the hangar and started up the jet. If anything big were to happen on Earth everyone up here would have a way to get down there, so I didn't feel bad for taking it just for me. I climbed into the driver's seat and started my descent down to Earth, Gotham specifically.

My body went into automatic piloting mode as I let my mind wander for the third time today. How long has it been since I had actually been to see my parents? Too long if I couldn't remember that simple answer, which caused another wave of guilt to wash over me. I landed the jet on top of an abandoned building, and got out, overlooking the city as the sun made a rare appearance.

Thankful that I changed into plain jeans and an olive green t-shirt before leaving the tower I slowly flew down to an alley right next to the building, and making sure no one was watching me, I blended into the crowd walking down the street. I weaved my way in between people until I had walked the four blocks I needed to, and dipped into a small flower store.

As the door swung open and shut the bell chimed, echoing throughout the empty room. The smell of freshly cut flowers put a small smile on my face and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, a mental picture of a flower covered hill appearing. When I opened my eyes I saw that empty shop wasn't so empty anymore. An elderly woman, old enough to easily be my grandmother, sat at the counter waiting for me to approach it.

"Hello sweetheart, what can I get for you today?" She asked me, giving me a smile.

"Um, I need three bouquets, but I'm not sure what kind of flowers to get," I said quietly as I approached the counter.

"Alright then, who are the bouquets for?" She asked, immediately looking over the dozens of flowers that were laid around the shop.

"My parents and my sister," I mumbled. The woman looked at me and her eyes softened when she saw the look on my face.

"Poor thing," she quietly muttered. She turned around and disappeared behind the piles and carts of flowers, and I heard the shuffling of leaves being moved around. She was gone for about five minutes before coming back with dozens of flowers in her hands. She laid them out on the counter and started pointing to each flower, explaining what they all were. "These big white ones are stargazer lilies. They are typically used for funerals and are given to people who are mourning. They usually express sympathy." She put those aside and pulled over the next batch of flowers. "These are dark crimson roses. They are used to show sorrow and grief." She moved the roses next to the lilies and pulled over the last few flowers. "These are yellow daffodils, which typically symbolize a fresh start and forgiveness, either to the person you are giving them to or for yourself," She said, finally meeting my eyes and giving me a knowing look. I just stared at the flowers in shock. I'm not the best with using my words, so the fact that this woman was able to express everything I wanted to say through a couple of plants was amazing.

She wrapped the three types of flowers into three different arrangements and set them up on the counter. "Is that all for you, dear?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am," I said, pulling out my small wallet from my pocket. "How much do I owe you?"

She regarded me for a moment before typing into the cash register, "Twenty dollars."

I head whipped up and I looked at her, I'm sure with a baffled expression on my face. "There must be some mistake, surely all three are worth more than twenty dollars."

The woman fixed me with a stare and cocked her eyebrow and placed a hand on her hip, "Dear, I am only charging you twenty dollars for all three, and there is no amount of arguing that is going to change that."

Slightly taken aback by how serious this woman was being I nodded my head and handed her the money. As soon as she had it in her hand her entire body relaxed and she went back to looking like the grandmother she was when I walked in. With a small smile she put the money in the register and handed me the bouquets. "Here you are sweetheart, have a nice day," She said, pressing the flowers into my hand and turning around to go back into what I would assume is the back room.

"Can I ask you something," I called out, catching her attention just before she stepped into the other room. She turned around and nodded her head, making it look like she already knew the answer to my question before I asked it. "How did you know-"

"-about the daffodils?" She said at the same time I did. I nodded, wondering how she could have known. She sent me another small smile before answering. "I've been doing this a long time. The more people you meet, the more eyes you see, and the more stories you know. One look at you and I'm confident in saying I made the right choice with the flowers, didn't I?" I nodded again, a little confused by what she meant but I didn't want to question her any further.

"Well then, take care of yourself now," She said, before she disappeared into the back. I gathered up the flowers and walked out the door, bell signaling my departure. I was swept away by the crowd again as I headed back towards the alley that the jet was parked in. Feeling fairly confident that no one was watching I stepped on a disc, flowers still in hand, and headed toward the outskirts of the city.

The further away from the city I got, the more anxious I started to feel. The sun peeking out behind the clouds didn't do anything to help me feel better. A rainstorm was more of how I felt inside, cold and grey and dreary. I looked down and saw what I was looking for, a little white church on a hill surrounded by a beautiful garden. Even from up this high you could still see the vibrant colors from the variety of flowers.

I landed in front of the church, checked to make sure the flowers were okay, and opened up the black wrought iron gate that led to the small cemetery. Not many people were buried here, mainly because not many people knew this church was here. My parents were married here, wanting to get away from the publicity of a big wedding in Gotham. They were married here together and buried here together. I suppose it could be considered poetic in a way, but I've never been one for symbolism. I'm more of a 'if it happens then it happens' type of person. I made my way through the sprawling gardens and trees of the quiet little cemetery until I reached the back, where three headstones all rested together.

I took a deep breath, trying to reel in my emotions before I got any closer. No use in having a meltdown yet. Once I thought I had a control on my emotions I walked towards the three black marble headstones, took a deep breath, and sat down. I placed the three bouquets on the ground in front of each headstone, and sat in front of the middle stone which happened to be my mothers.

"Hi guys," I said, feeling a little silly for talking to a bunch of stones. "I know I haven't been here in a while, at least since last year. Umm, so a lot has happened. I've stayed with the Justice League. I guess I've helped people and all that jazz," I said, pulling some grass up and tearing it in half. "I'm closer to the League than I was last year. They're like my new family I guess." At the word 'family' my eyes started watering and I had to look up at the sky to try and blink them away. I noticed the sky had turned a little greyer than it was earlier. "God I miss you guys. I think about you every day. I wish I had my abilities before the accident, maybe I could have done something," my voice breaking and tears starting to stream down my face, mixing with the light droplets of rain that were now falling.

"I could have stopped the car, or stopped the rain, or maybe I should have said no to going out." I stood up and started pacing around, in a full frenzy now, paying absolutely no attention to the rain soaking me and the rest of my surroundings. "I should have been stronger! I should have done everything differently!" I was yelling now, running my hands through my hair, trying to get the wet strands out of my face. "God, if I wasn't born you wouldn't have been in the car, you never would have left the house that night, and you would still be alive!" I stopped and took in shuddering breaths, trying to calm myself down when I realized the rain was no longer hitting me. Confused I looked up and saw a giant black umbrella covering my entire body, with enough room for another person to stand.

I whipped around and was startled by the brilliant blue eyes that were boring into mine. I gasped and took a small step back and took in the sight of Bruce, not Bats, staring at me, holding an umbrella in his hand. He was dressed in the most casual outfit I had ever seen him in, a pair of long khakis and a light blue button down shirt, and instead of the typical pity that would be in someone's eyes there was only understanding in his. And of course there would be. How many times has he done this, blame himself for everything that had happened to him, wished things would have been different if one night had never happened? Neither of us said anything and in a way we didn't have too. There were tears still falling down my face as we just stood there staring at each other.

"Why'd it have to be us?" I whispered, my voice breaking in the middle. Another sob took over me and I stepped forward and placed my forehead against his broad chest holding my chest to try and stop the crying. I don't know how long I stood like that, but eventually Bruce placed a hand across my back, rubbing soothing circles across it, while the other hand continued to hold the umbrella over both of us. Eventually the sobs ceased along with the rain, until the only sounds that could be heard were the drops of rain falling form the leaves and my occasional sniffle.

The rubbing on my back slowed to a stop and I took that as an invitation to get off of him. I slowly straightened myself up and wiped my face, trying to get the remnants of the tears off of it. "Umm, sorry about that," I mumbled, and turned away to face the headstones again. A large hand gently grabbed my arm and spun me around. I looked up at Bruce, wondering what he was doing. For a second Bruce looked as uncertain as I did, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. He gently wiped a small tear that I had missed and kept his hand on my cheek, lightly stroking it. It took everything in me not to close my eyes and lean into his hand.

"Don't ever apologize for this," Bruce whispered. "You hold things in for too long, you need to let it out more."

I chuckled and looked down. "Are you sure you're one to talk about opening up more?" I asked. For the first time since I met him an actual smile formed on his face.

"You got me there, Eves," he said. He looked past me and towards the stones, dropping his hand from my face and the smile disappearing. "I'm sorry you have to go through this."

I turned around and looked at the stones that were now shining in the sun which was starting to peek out from the clouds. "It's just life I guess," I said. I looked at Bruce as he closed the umbrella and tossed it to the ground. "Do you want to hear about them?" I asked. He hesitated for a minute before nodding. I turned back to the headstones and raised my hands, summoning the excess moisture from the rain and sending it off towards the side. I plopped down and patted the ground next to me, gesturing for him sit down. With a small smirk he sat down, crossing his legs and placing his hands in his lap, oddly enough making him look like an overgrown child. A very overgrown child.

We sat and talked for hours, about everything that had to do with my family, and Bruce even throwing in some bits about his childhood, which made me extremely happy that he was opening up to me. Eventually when the sun got a little lower in the sky we stood up and decided to leave. "I'll go start the car," Bruce said, obviously wanting to leave me alone to say goodbye. As his footsteps disappeared I looked down at the stones with a small smile gracing my face.

"Yeah so…that happened," I muttered suppressing the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl. "I really like him. It's taken a while but I think he's opening up a little bit." I looked back and saw Bruce ducking into his car. I turned back around and squatted down to their level. "I'll come back soon, I promise," I whispered, blowing a kiss to each stone.

Feeling a lot better than I did this morning I walked back to Bruce's bright red car, opened the door, and got in, the smell of new leather and Bruce's cologne smothering my senses. "Ready?" Bruce asked, glancing over at me. I nodded and with a smirk he peeled out of the parking lot with a squealing of tires. I let out a small squeal myself and gripped the door handle tighter. I glared at Bruce and saw that the smirk had grown larger probably because he knew that I hate it when he drives like that.

"Really?" I asked.

"What?" he asked, trying to keep an innocent face but failing as he smirked again.

I let out a small laugh and released my death grip from the door handle. "So, how did you know where to find me? Are you following me?" I asked, only partly joking. He had a habit of putting tracking devices on essentially everything in the Tower.

"Of course I'm not following you," Bruce said, glancing over at me before putting his eyes back on the road. "I merely looked at the public records to see where they were buried. You didn't look too good this morning and I didn't think you should be alone."

"Oh, well, thank you," I said, feeling a slight blush envelope my cheeks. Bruce Wayne/Batman just said he was thinking about me. Me! It was silent as I mulled over these thoughts before Bruce spoke up again.

"Did you know you could make a rain storm when you're emotional?" He asked.

"No! I had no idea." I laughed, and thought about the storm that had popped up as soon as I lost control over my emotions. "Maybe it's something I need to experiment with, see what I can do with that."

Bruce hummed in agreement, looking to be deep in thought and the car stayed silent for a little while, until we ended up back in the city. "Am I dropping you off at your building?" he asked.

"Yes, please. I need to change before patrol." I said, thinking about where I wanted to start my patrol at.

"You're patrolling tonight?" Bruce asked, sounding a little surprised.

"Of course," I said while looking out the window. "Laying around tonight won't do me any good. I might as well try to help someone."

Bruce nodded before stopping at a red light only about two blocks away from my apartment. "Well than I'll see you tonight."

I smiled as we pulled up to my building. "I guess you will." I opened my door and started to get out before stopping and turning back to Bruce. "Can you bring the coffee tonight?"

With a small eye roll and a smile Bruce nodded his head, "Yes, I will bring the coffee."

"Thanks!" I squealed before hopping out and closing the door. I took a step towards the curb before turning back around and leaning into the open window of the car. "Seriously Bruce, thank you for everything today. It means a lot."

A small smile appeared on his face and I swear a light blush dusted his cheeks before he answered. "Of course Eves, anytime. Happy birthday."

We stared at each other for a few seconds before the pause started turning awkward and I straightened myself up and took a step back. "I'll see you tonight," I called over my shoulder as I walked into my building. As I walked up the stairs I thought about the emotional rollercoaster I had been on today, and even with the bad stuff, I couldn't help but smile at the good stuff that had happened. Maybe this wasn't the worst birthday ever, and maybe my birthday didn't always have to be so bad.


	17. Only a Dream

Hello guys! Yes I finally updated and I have very exciting news. I actually reached over 100 followers! When I started writing this story my only goal was to get my ideas on paper and if people liked it then so be it. But now, knowing that over 100 people actually want to read what I wrote is amazing. I'm thankful for each and every one of you. As always please leave a review or comment and I will post again as soon as I can!

"Flash, leave J'onn alone," I said in between yawns as I watched Flash wave his hands in front of J'onn's face. Judging by the lack of response and J'onn's glowing eyes I assumed he was meditating.

"It's okay, I don't think he's home right now. What's he working on anyway?" Flash asked as he turned around towards me. I shrugged and walked to the computer, figuring I would let Shayera handle him. I stopped to stand next to Batman who was sitting in front of the computer flicking through multiple news networks and typing furiously.

"Anything interesting happening?" I asked.

"Possibly," Bats said as he slowed down his typing and began reading.

Flash's voice carried over to the computer just as Bats finished typing. "Aren't you even a little-"

"Forget him," Bats interrupted. "Get over here."

"Crankier than usual," Flash muttered as he made his way over to us, Shayera following. "So?" He asked as John and Superman came over as well.

"There's been a prison break," Bats told us as he pulled up pictures of everyone who escaped. "Grundy, Copperhead, Luminus, Volcana, and Firefly."

"Say no more," Flash said, straightening up.

"I wasn't going to," Bats said as he stood up and brushed past everyone, heading towards the hangar.

"Somebody's extra grumpy," Flash said.

"Hey, give him a break. We haven't slept in 3 days," I said trying to suppress another yawn.

"Oh, spending some quality time together?" Flash asked while wiggling his eyebrows.

"Huh?" I asked, wondering what he was talking about, and then it hit me. "Oh my gosh, no Flash!" I said whacking him on the shoulder. "Gotham has been going crazy this week and we've been working together. Between being there at night and up here most of the day we haven't had a chance to sleep. Get your head out of the gutter." I said shaking my head and heading towards the hangar as well. Five sets of footsteps followed me and we all met Bats next to his jet.

"Local authorities found Firefly and Volcana and have them surrounded in a warehouse." Bats told us. "I'm heading there now."

"I'll go with you," Lantern said. Bats nodded his head as he climbed into his jet.

"You coming Evie? We could use you against Volcana," Bats asked as he buckled himself in.

"Yeah, sure," I said, knowing that I could be pretty effective against a girl who shoots fire from her hands.

"Gee, what a surprise," Shayera mumbled, but not quietly enough because I heard her. I shot her a look before climbing in but she only smirked and shook her head.

"The rest of you, try to find the others," Bats called out before he closed the hatch shut and started the engine. I finished buckling myself in and laid my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes. "Don't fall asleep."

I opened one eye and looked at him as he flew the jet out of the Watchtower. "I should be telling you that. You're the one who's driving." Instead of answering Bats only yawned. "See, my point exactly," I said, laying my head back on the headrest but I kept my eyes open this time.

"I'll be fine. I've gone longer without any sleep."

"Bruce, that's not healthy."

He glanced over at the use of his full name and then looked back at the clouds we were flying through. "I dress up in a bat costume, fight bad guys, frequently get beat up, and do it all over again the next night. Clearly something about me is not healthy."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "The sooner you admit you aren't as dark and creepy as you try to prove to people you are, the happier you'll be." I said. He hummed in agreement but didn't say anything else and the rest of the ride was quiet.

"We're here," He said as he landed his jet on top of a building. I looked out the window and saw a dozen police cars were on fire.

"Yeah, we are," I muttered. Bats opened the hatch and we jumped out, Lantern was floating next to us. "I see Volcana, where is Firefly?"

"I would assume inside the warehouse still," Bats said, taking out his binoculars to get a better look.

I snorted, "Figures, he needed a woman to do his job." Both boys gave me looks, and I shrugged them off. "Hey, you know I'm right."

Lantern shook his head and looked back at the scene below. Voclana was walking over to one of the officers who was lying on the ground. She raised her arms and held fire in her hands. "Well, time to get to work," I said. I took half a step back and jumped off the building. I flipped in the air and landed on a disk, flying down to where Volcana was. I sent a wave of water in front of her, just as she flung her hands down and shot a flame where the officer would have been, had it not been for Lantern moving her out of the way just in time. The flames turned to steam and, furious, Volcana looked up at us.

"Don't you think you should see a shrink about that hot headedness?" I called down. She rolled her eyes and shot more flames at us, which Lantern blocked with a shield he made. I landed on the ground and started shooting a heavy stream of water towards her legs, which were open from the flames. Volcana lost focus on Lantern and turned it towards me instead. I made an ice shield and tried forcing her flames back, making me have to replenish my shield constantly.

Firefly flew behind Volcana and he said something, but I couldn't make out what it was between the roar of the flames she was making and the steam from the flames and the ice. Whatever he said, she seemed to like it. "Good, now I can really concentrate," She said before smirking.

In a flash her temperature got hotter as she powered herself fully. Her skin had turned a dark red and flames engulfed her entire body, causing her core temperature to go up, which fueled her powers even more. Before Lantern and I had a pretty good handle on her flames, but now that she was at full power, we were barely holding her off. The flames she was producing was melting my shield almost as fast as I could replenish it, and Lantern looked like he was struggling too.

"Lantern, we've got to get out of here!" I yelled. He didn't acknowledge me, so I had no way of knowing if he even heard me. I pushed my powers more and strained against my shield, trying to get it pushed towards her but the only thing that was doing was using up more of my energy, energy of which I barely had.

A movement behind Volcana caught my eye and I saw Batman was on top of Firefly, riding like a horse. The scene would have been comical if I hadn't been close to melting. At the last second, Bats jumped off of Firefly, causing him to be sent careening towards Volcana. He flew into her, sending them both to the ground and breaking Volcana's concentration. Her flames died down and both of them went flying in a heap.

I melted what was left of my shield and watched Volcana and Firefly argue as they untangled themselves and struggled to get up. "Here, watch this," Lantern said. He flew above them and made a dome out of his ring and set it on top of them both.

I walked over to the side of the dome and looked at Lantern. "Do you really think this will hold me?" Volcana asked him.

"Knock yourself out," Lantern said. Both Firefly and Volcana looked at each other before going back to back and shooting flames at the walls of the shield, Volcana from her hands and Firefly from his gun. After a few seconds of them shooting flames, they both started to cough and the flames got lower and lower. I smiled as I realized what was going on.

Another 20 seconds later and it was clear it was getting harder for them to breathe. Firefly was pretty much passed out and Volcana turned towards us. "What's happening?" She asked, clutching her throat.

"Fire needs air, and you just burned up all of yours," Bats said as he walked up behind me. At this point both villains were passed out from a lack of oxygen.

"Science, bitches!" I said as Lantern released the shield around them. Officers immediately came over and placed handcuffs on their wrists and hauled them into an armored vehicle.

"We should probably follow them, just in case something else happens," Lantern said. Bats and I nodded in agreement and went back up to the jet, whereas Lantern followed them in the air. A few minutes later we were inside the prison, watching Firefly be escorted into a cell and Volcana was receiving oxygen and was placed in a cell.

Bats and I were talking to the warden when Bats let out a yawn, covering his mouth while the warden just quirked an eyebrow at him. "Pretty routine stuff for you guys, huh?" He asked, assuming Bats was yawning because he was bored.

"Sorry," Bats said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Third night in a row with no sleep."

The warden nodded in understanding. "Maybe you should-" but he didn't finish his sentence due to his walkie going off.

"Warden, Dee is gone," The officer on the other side said.

"What are you talking about? He's catatonic, how can he be gone?" The warden asked, sounding like he didn't believe a word the other guard was saying. Batman and I exchanged a look before looking back at the Warden.

"You better come to the infirmary." The warden looked at both Bats and I before telling the other guard he would be right there.

"We'll go with you," Bats said. He called Lantern over and the four of us started walking down the hallways, our footsteps echoing off the walls.

"Would you like to explain to us what's going on?" I asked. The warden glanced at me before sighing and starting his story.

"One of our doctors here is working on a machine that can give people the ability to have ESP, or extrasensory perception. He was almost done with the machine too, he just had to test it on a longer scale, to see what side effects could occur. During the riot one of our inmates knocked the doctor out and used the machine on himself. We don't know how long he was in there before we found him. Once we go the machine off, he was catatonic. He couldn't move, speak…anything."

"An ESP machine? Kind of a dangerous thing to have around in a prison, isn't it?" Lantern asked the warden.

"Where else are you going to find volunteers to…" He trailed off as we rounded the corner and entered the infirmary. I let out a small gasp as I saw the dozens of men laying everywhere. Some were in beds, others just lying on the floor like they collapsed. Most of them were moaning softly, so at least they were alive. Batman and Lantern ran ahead of me to start checking on people and I quickly followed behind them.

The warden and Lantern looked over a guard while Bats and I took in the scene. "All I wanted to do was go to bed," I groaned as I rolled my stick neck around, trying to get it to pop.

"I need every available guard to start looking for Dee," The warden said into his walkie talkie. "Can you guys hang around and help look?" He asked us. We nodded and spread out, looking in every door, around every corner, and even in the laundry chutes. After half an hour of looking we hadn't found any trace of where this Dee fellow had gone. As Bats looked in the last laundry chute, he said out loud what I was thinking.

"It's probably too late, but you should have someone check the laundry room just in case."

"But, but what happened to everybody? Some kind of poisoning?" The warden asked us, definitely looking more frazzled than he was before. This had been a long day for him, and now this.

"Yeah?" Lantern answered his communicator which had been beeping. "We'll be right there" He ended the connection on his communicator and turned towards us. "The others have the rest of the three pinned down across town."

"I'm staying," Bats said.

"What for? You don't know if Dee did this," Lantern questioned.

"I don't know that he didn't."

Lantern let out an exasperated sigh, "Look, whatever he is, he sure isn't in the same league as Grundy and the others. He's a nobody," Lantern shrugged.

"Ever read the Odyssey?" Bats asked him. Lantern's silence was the answer and Bats continued. "After Odysseus was caught by the cyclops he told him his name was Nobody. So when he poked his eye out and his friends asked who did it, all the cyclops could say was 'Nobody'."

Lantern raised an eyebrow. "Point taken."

I turned to the warden, who was looking between the two superheroes with a baffled expression on his face. Great, he probably thinks we all use Greek tragedies to justify what we do all the time. "What do you know about John Dee?" I asked him, trying to get the group back on track.

"I'll get his file for you," the warden said.

"I might be able to help," a taller guard with a mustache said. He walked up behind the warden and looked between the three of us.

"Lantern, go help the others. I'll stay here with Bats and try to figure some of this out," I said. Lantern nodded and started heading towards the main exit while Bats and I followed the guard to an interview room.

"Let's start from the beginning," I said, kicking my heeled boots up onto the table and listened to what the guard had to say. Bats stood against the wall, listening as intently as I was (or at least trying to). The guard gave us everything we needed to know about Dee. Apparently they had become fairly close over the time that he was here. Heck, even I felt like I was friends with this guy. We knew everything, right down to who his wife was, who just happened to leave him for another man yesterday.

When the guard was finished talking, Bats and I got up to leave. We thanked him for the information and left.

"So what now?" I asked as I jogged along, trying to keep up with Bats' enormous strides.

"I am going to track down this ex-girlfriend, and you are going to bed."

"Wait, what?" I asked, faltering my steps.

"You heard me. Go to bed, you're exhausted," Bats said.

"Well hey, so are you! How come you're sending me home?"

"Honestly? Because you would just slow me down."

I raised my eyebrows and shot him my best 'are you serious' look. Bats must have thought about what he said and started backtracking. "I didn't mean it that way, I just meant since you're tired you're reaction time will be slower, which means I have to look after you." I kept giving my incredulous stare and he kept trying to backtrack. "I'm not saying you can't fight I just don't want you getting hurt." I would have kept giving him the look had a yawn not interrupted me and threaten to stretch my face in half.

Bats only gave me a look and smirked, knowing that that yawn had just proved him right. I let out a chuckle and sighed, "Fine, I'll go. But only for a few hours. Then I'm back on this case."

"I wouldn't expect anything else," Bats said. "Do you want a ride home?"

I shook my head. "No, I'll be fine. It may take me a while to get back home, but don't worry." I said waving him off.

"Be careful," He warned as he stepped into his jet.

"I will be. You better be too!" I said, stepping onto a disc and flying up. About half an hour later I was stepping through my apartment window. Heading towards my room I grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top and walked into the bathroom. I peeled off my uniform and jumped in the shower, washing away the layers of grime which had accumulated while I was awake for 36 hours. I let the hot water run over my body and didn't get out until it started to turn cold. Sure I was tired, but I wanted to be clean more than I wanted to sleep.

I got dressed and towel dried my hair, leaving it in its natural curly state as I tossed the black decorative pillows off my bed and jumped in. The last thing I did was take the communicator out of my ear before my head hit the pillow. I closed my eyes and started shutting my brain down in order to get these few hours of sleep.

My eyes were closed for maybe 3 minutes when I had the feeling that I was being watched. I tried to push it off as me being tired, but my gut was telling me otherwise. Just as I was about to open my eyes a hand grabbed my shoulder and instinct kicked in. I wrapped my arm around the other person's arm and flung them down onto my bed so that I was straddling them and holding an ice dagger to their throat.

"Nice reaction," I heard out of the dark. And I knew the voice.

I scrambled to turn on my bedside lamp and when it came on, the soft yellow glow washed over the room, illuminating me straddling Batman's chest.

"Bruce, what the hell are you doing in my apartment?" I asked sounding very exasperated as I got rid of my knife.

"You didn't answer your communicator," He said, and a shit eating grin appeared on his face. "Do you always surprise intruders this way?" He asked, looking me over as I still sat on his waist.

"You are unbelievable," I said as I climbed off of him and slid off my bed.

"I didn't get in your bed, you dragged me into it," he said.

I turned around and gave him a deadpanned look. "Did you need something?"

The grin slid off his face and he was quickly back into Batman mode. "Yeah, the League is in trouble."

"What happened?" I asked, my playful mood disappearing and a more serious one took place.

"It's Dee. He calls himself Dr. Destiny now and he infiltrated his wife's dreams and put her in a never ending nightmare. She can't wake up. J'onn is the only one besides you that I can get ahold of and he said that Dee wants revenge on us. It's safe to say that the rest of the League is stuck in their own nightmares."

"Seriously? What do we do?" I asked as I walked over to my closet and pulled out another uniform and walked into the bathroom to change.

"I have J'onn checking on Lantern and Superman since they are both down here. He'll take them up to the Watchtower where he can keep an eye on them at once," Bats said through the door. While he was talking I quickly pulled on my leggings, leotard, and jacket, and ran my fingers through my curls.

I opened the door and Bats stepped back and let me pass. I slid my boots on and turned around. "Okay, let's go."

Bats headed towards the window and I assumed the car was parked right below my fire escape. We climbed down and got in the car and he sped off down the empty streets of Gotham.

"Where are we going now?" I asked him, holding onto the door handle for dear life.

"We're going to meet J'onn. He has the jet to take everybody back up to the Watchtower. J'onn had dropped Superman off before I came and got you. I gave him some medicine to hopefully keep him from thrashing around. A hit from him could end up with us broken."

I nodded and tried to keep my eyes focused on the road, but everything was a blur and I couldn't concentrate on anything. I need to have a talk with Bruce about his driving. About 10 minutes late we had left the city limits and were in a field, the Jet appearing on the horizon. Bats parked the car and we stepped out and went up the jet's ramp. Superman was sitting in a chair in his pajamas and was slightly twitching and moaning.

Bats walked over and examined him when I stood back and took all of the information in. How badly could this Dee guy hurt us in our dreams?

"Eves, can you hold down his arm for me?" Bats asked as he held a syringe in his hand.

I pushed myself off the wall that I was leaning on and walked over. "Sure, what is that?" I said, nodding towards the syringe.

"A sedative. I don't know how well it will work, but hopefully it will last long enough to get him in the Watchtower."

I grabbed Superman's thrashing arm and held it down against his side as Bats walked over and slipped the needle beneath his skin and released the liquid into his veins.

"There, you should be able to let go now," He said to me as he walked over and threw the used needle into a bin. I let go of my grip on his arm and took a step back. Supes looked a little more peaceful than before, but he still was making facial expressions of pain.

"What do you think he's seeing?" I asked quietly.

"I don't know. Honestly, I don't want to think about living my worst nightmare." Bats said while shaking his head. I thought I saw him glance up at me, but it must have been a trick of the light, because a second later he was back to reading some papers that were lying around.

"Me either," I mumbled. A few seconds later J'onn arrived and we both walked down the ramp to meet him. He was carrying Lantern, who also looked pained, but he was fidgeting a whole lot more than Superman was.

"Couldn't wake him?" Bats asked him.

"No. Any luck with Superman?"

"We gave him some stimulants," I said.

"But this is someone who could have a building fall on him and not feel it," Bats finished.

"I'll try the bio-regenerators up in sick bay," J'onn said walking past us, still carrying Lantern.

"Good luck. In the meantime Evie and I are gonna find this guy."

"How?" J'onn and I asked at the exact same time.

"While he's using his mental powers his body is probably vulnerable. He has to be in a place he thinks is safe," He explained.

"Somewhere familiar," I finished, understanding what Bats wanted to start doing.

"Reasonable, but once you find him, how do you stop him from…thinking?" J'onn asked.

"I'll just have to improvise," Bats said, a smirk forming on his face. He turned on his heel and started fast walking towards the car.

I stared after him for a minute before turning to J'onn. "I really hate that smirk sometimes. Nothing good usually ever comes from it," I said before turning around and jogging after Bats.

"Be careful! If you nod off for even a second…" J'onn called after us.

"Don't worry, I'm used to late hours," Bats called back as he opened the doors to the car and jumped in.

"Yeah, plus he has me," I said as I jumped in the car too. The hatch slid shut and we sped off. "So, where to first?"

"We'll start with his house, I doubt he will be there though. It's too obvious."

"So why are we going if we doubt he's going to be there?" I questioned.

"Because it's so obvious he may think we would overlook it."

I nodded in understanding and didn't say anything else, instead, focusing on keeping my eyes open and my brain functioning. I was so close to falling asleep earlier that the fatigue is not hitting me twice as hard as it was before.

"I like your hair that way," Bats said, interrupting the silence.

I automatically put my hand up and tugged on some of the curls. "Thanks. I usually don't keep it this way, but I had a bit of a rude awakening," I said, giving him a pointed look. He only smirked but he kept his eyes on the road. "So where is his house?"

"It's a cabin in the woods, not too far from here actually." Bats said, pressing a button on his console and the computer showed a cabin tucked in a small valley.

"And if he isn't there?" I ask.

"We'll figure something out."

About 10 minutes later we arrived at Dee's cabin and pulled into the driveway. All the lights were off and it was absolutely quiet. We got out of the car and climbed up onto the front porch. Bats made quick work of picking the lock and we stepped into the hall. "You check down here, I'll check upstairs," he whispered. I nodded and watched him slowly climbed the stairs using his flashlight. I walked into the living room, my hand sliding against the wall looking for the light switch. I found it and flicked the light on, bathing the room in yellow. Nobody was here so I did the same in the other rooms on the first floor, a kitchen and a bathroom and didn't find anyone.

Bats did the same upstairs because a minute later he was walking down the stairs, shaking his head. "No one is here," He said, walking out the front door.

I followed him and shut the door behind me. My communicator beeped and Bats' must have as well, because we both put a finger up to our ear at the same time to turn it on.

"What?" Bats asked J'onn.

"Was he there?" J'onn asked us.

"No, it's a cute place though," I said, peering into the garden.

"Back to square one," Bats said, giving me a small eye roll when he thought I wasn't looking.

"The others are getting worse. I'm going to have to go into their minds."

"It's too dangerous. You could end up just like them," Bats said, trying to talk him out of this plan. Quite frankly, I agreed with him. If we lost J'onn then the two of us didn't stand a chance. There probably isn't something on his utility belt that could wake them up, and the best I could do is freeze them.

"If I don't, they'll die for sure," J'onn said. I looked at Bats puzzled.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"There was a news report," J'onn said. "Dee's wife didn't make it. The stress on her body was too great."

My eyes widened and I looked at Bats. He shared the same look before he realized J'onn was right, this was the only way.

"Do what you have to then." He hung up the call hung his head. "Come on, we have work to do." He stalked over to the car. Now he was pissed. We hopped in and he started typing on his keyboard. "I need the arrest report for John Dee," He mumbled.

A second later he peeled out of the driveway and started winding down the roads. "File uploaded. Arrest report for John Dee," His computer spoke. Bats turned up the volume and we listened to the file. "Subject was found guarding smuggled weapons in Lex Corps harbor warehouse during a search that was initiated by the Justice League." Bats groaned and rubbed his eyes.

"Well, that explains why he hates us. We are the reason he was arrested." I said.

"Dee was apparently a low level employee of Lex Corp." The computer continued. I looked up and saw headlights, which were headed directly towards us.

"Uhh, Bats…" I said, waiting for him to move. The headlights came closer and I noticed they were attached to a tractor trailer. "Bats!" I yelled. He jerked the wheel at the last second and the truck sounded its horn. We swerved out of the way before stopping, running into a guardrail.

"Are you alright?" he asked, still rubbing his eyes.

"I guess so. Do you want me to drive?" I asked, looking him over. His shoulders were more slumped than they were before and even though he had his mask on, I could tell that he had bags under his eyes.

"No, I'm okay. I think Dee is starting to get in my head." he said, rubbing his whole face before looking back at the road.

"Anything I can do?" I asked.

"Can you make it colder in here?" He asked.

"Psh, like you even have to ask," I said. I closed my eyes and lowered my temperature until it was cold enough we could see our breath.

"Thanks," He said, letting out a small chuckle. He looked back at the computer and pressed a button, replaying the last part of the report.

"Subject was found guarding smuggled weapons in Lex Corps harbor warehouse." Bats nodded and took off again down the road.

"I take it we're going to the warehouse?" I asked.

"Yep. If he wants revenge on us, it would make sense he would go to the place it all started."

I nodded and looked out the window, watching the black masses of trees blur by as we sped down the mountain and into the city. I blinked, slowly opening my eyes that time, unable to make them move any faster.

You have to sleep sometime you know. I jolted upright and glanced around the car, not knowing where the voice was coming from. I'm already in your head.

"Get out of my head," I mumbled, keeping my eyes focused on the road. Bats looked over at me but I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. The sooner we can get there, the better." He nodded and pressed the gas down harder.

"So, how's the business going?" I asked, trying to make small talk to help us stay awake.

Bats gave me a weird look but answered anyway. "It's fine. I have people who take care of most of the work for me so it means I can focus on this more. Unfortunately this week it didn't quite pan out like I wanted it to. I had meetings every day, hence the no sleep."

"You have to go to meetings?" I asked, my nose wrinkling up in distaste.

Bats chuckled, "I am the owner of the company and my name is on the building. I have to show up sometimes."

"Yeah, but I can't picture you in a room full of people in suits telling you about numbers and quotas and stuff. I either picture you perched on the edge of a building, the wind flapping your cape everywhere, or I picture the Bruce Wayne I met in a bookstore, wandering around without a care in the world."

"Those are two very different people," Bats said, shifting his hands on the steering wheel, gripping it a little harder.

I looked at him for a solid minute before answering. "No they aren't. Not really." I turned my head back to the window so I couldn't see his reaction, but I swear he was staring at me.

He cut the wheel to go down an alley and I saw his head nod a bit. When I was looking at him, I didn't see the trashcans coming across the windshield until they had already cracked glass. Bats jolted up and straightened out the wheel while I sat up straighter in the seat.

"That's twice now," I said, crossing my arms.

"I need coffee," He said as he took a sharp right down another alley. He pulled into a parking lot of a 24 hour coffee shop. He jumped out of the car and headed towards the door.

"Get me one!" I called after him. He waved his arm, telling me I heard him and then I sat back down in the seat. I looked to my left and saw a child sitting in the back seat of a car while her mother was on the phone. I waved over to her and she giggled, waving back. It put a small smile on my face. The mother pulled out and I was left alone in the car.

What is your biggest nightmare? Fall asleep and I'll show you.

I rolled my neck, trying to get Dee's voice out of my head as I struggled to stay awake. A second later Batman jumped back into the car holding a cup of coffee in his hand. "Here, drink this."

I grabbed the cup and took a sip before pulling it away with a scowl. "Did you put no cream and sugar in this?" I asked.

"Cream and sugar is bad for you. Just drink it black like I do."

"Only psychopaths drink black coffee and enjoy it," I argued, but continued to take sips of it, just so I could stay awake.

"I drink my coffee black, Eves. Hell, half the League takes their coffee black."

"Flash and I don't. We like lots of cream and sugar so that we don't taste the psycho in the drink."

Bats just shook his head and sighed. "You're impossible sometimes."

I smirked at him. "I know, I think that's why you like me so much." He chuckled at that and let the conversation drop as I finished my coffee.

We had driven another few blocks before the silence was broken again, this time by Bats. "Sorry, I'm going to have to cancel that appointment."

I looked around, confused as to who he was talking to. "Umm, what?"

"It's Destiny. He's in my head more. Can you drop the temperature again?"

"Bats, it's already pretty low. Too much more and I'm going to give us pneumonia." I said, watching my breath continue to blow out.

"Fine, watch your eyes."

"Watch my eyes? Watch my eyes for- ah!"

The man punched the window out of his car so that the breeze would blow in. He punched his window out. I couldn't do anything except stare at him, my mouth gaping open.

"You're a billionaire. Can't you afford a car that has windows that roll down?" I asked him. He looked at me with a deadpanned look and didn't say anything, he just pushed a button on his radio so that this kid song was playing, quite obnoxiously.

I listened to it for another minute, wondering why the hell he had a kid's song already programmed into the car, and decided I didn't actually want to know.

I just sat back and hummed along to the song, which just happened to be one I recognized. Frere Jacques was a fairly common nursery rhyme that I grew up hearing.

"We're only five minutes away. Get ready," Bats said. I nodded and checked over my outfit, making sure my lace up boots were tied, and my staff was secure.

We pulled up outside of the Lex Corp building, hopped out, and approached the door. "Do you want to kick it, or shall I?" Bats asked.

"I think I will," I said with a hand on my hip. Bats took a step back, giving me enough room. I took a breath and swung my foot out, hitting the door right next to the knob and kicked it open. It was dark inside as we peered in. "I don't see anything," I said.

Bats stepped through the door first and I followed him, pulling my staff out. We walked down the hallways, peering through doors that were crumbling down and covered in dust and mold. We got to the end of the hallway and the only place left to go was into the bathroom. We stepped over the crumbling tile and stood there, taking in the room.

"Coming here was the mistake of your life," a voice rang out. Bats and I immediately got into defensive positions, looking around the room to see where it came from. "See, the closer I am to someone, the stronger I get. I'll be able to go into your brain, even when you're wide awake."

I turned towards the mirror and swore I could see a reflection of a man, or should I say skull, wearing a purple cape, but when I glanced over my shoulder there was nothing there to make that reflection.

Bats straightened up and turned to walk through the rest of the bathroom. "My brain isn't a nice place to be." He said.

I fell into step with him as we crossed the bathroom. A figure rose up from the water collected on the floor, the same skull figure that I saw in the mirror. With a flick of my wrist I dispersed the water, making the figure disappear.

"What's that stupid song going through your mind?" Dr. Destiny asked. I quickly glanced over at Bats, wondering what he was talking about.

"It's what's keeping you out, Johnny," Bats said, stepping over the rest of the water.

"Interesting, but she doesn't have it in her head," He said.

Batman quickly looked at me, "Play something in your head, now!" I immediately started humming the first tune that popped into my head.

I kept the song playing in my head as Bats and I walked down the rest of the hallways. Bats suddenly stopped and was staring straight ahead. "Bats?" I questioned. He didn't move so I stood directly in front of him, waving my hand across his face. "Bats!"

"He isn't home right now, why don't you leave a message?" Destiny called out.

I ignored him and grabbed Bats' shoulder, jolting him back. "You okay?" I asked.

"Peachy. Come on," He said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards a room full of crates. We slowly stepped in. This was the only room we hadn't checked yet. Dee had to be in here. "What do you say, Johnny? Wanna go one on one? It'll give you something to brag about."

"Get rid of the girl and I might," Dee said. I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

"Of course you'd say that. You just know you aren't strong enough to take us one on one."

That must have been the wrong thing to say because a second later Dr. Destiny yelled and jumped out from behind a crate and lunged at me, a needle in hand. We locked arms and I struggled to keep him off of me, focusing more on the syringe than the creepy skull with the glowing eyes.

He had me pinned up against a crate with the syringe barely pressed up against my throat. I kicked my legs out, sending him flying backwards, where Bats punched him into another stack of crates. Every punch Bats landed caused Dee's image to flicker between the skeleton and his normal brown haired self.

When his image finally flickered back to the skeleton, he grabbed a crate with his left hand and swung it at Bats. When Bats was down he went to kick him in the face, but before he could I froze it to the ground, the swung around and landed a hit against his chest. Unfortunately for me, he caught me and threw me across the room. I rolled onto my stomach and looked up. Destiny had his full attention me. He broke through my ice and started stalking towards me, holding the syringe up above his head before batman jumped in front of him and landed a punch, sending Destiny sprawling through a load of crates.

There was no movement from the pile so Bats caught his breath and walked over to me. He put his hand down for me to grab and pulled me up to my feet. "You good?" I asked him.

He rubbed his chin but nodded. "Yeah, you?" I nodded and looked over at the pile of crates that Destiny was under. We slowly walked towards it and Bats lifted up the crate, showing Dee curled up on the floor with an empty syringe. When he fell the needle must have pierced him and put the sleep aid in him instead. He was already out cold.

"Sweet dreams," Bats said. I snorted and walked past him.

"Come on, let's call the authorities and get out of here. We should check on the others." Within ten minutes police cars were everywhere and Dee was back into custody. We walked away from the buildings and over to a small space on the docks. Bats pressed a button on his belt and within minutes the jet was hovering above us. We boarded that and flew to the Watchtower.

We raced up to sickbay to see that Superman and Flash were already awake and speaking with J'onn.

"It's about time you guys got here," Flash said, coming over and giving me a hug, which I returned. "I thought for a second that Destiny had gotten you too."

"Us? Come on Flash, who are you kidding?" I smirked, but then yawned immediately after.

Bats had walked past us and stood over Lantern's and Shayera's beds. "They should be waking up soon," Flash said, following my gaze.

"Good…good," I mumbled, my eyes catching an empty chair by their beds. Bats must have had the same idea because he walked over to them too. We both picked a chair and sank down into it, splaying our legs out. "80 hours without sleep. That's a new record for me," I said, as I yawned into my hand.

"Me too, let's not break that record," Bats mumbled, sinking down into his chair more. Our chairs were close enough together that I could lay my head on his shoulder, which I did. Bats must have been too tired to protest because he didn't say anything, just sat there. My head was moving up and down with his breathing and I slowly felt my eyes droop closed.

The next thing I know I wake up, looking at the white ceiling of sick bay. I sit up and noticed that I was in a bed, not the chair I fell asleep on last night, or whenever I did fall asleep, there were no clocks in this room. The second thing I noticed was the black cape that had pooled around my waist as I sat up. Rubbing my thumb against the familiar material a small smile made its way to my face.

Still smiling I slid out of bed and stretched, getting the stiffness out of my muscles. Once I finished cracking all the joints in my body I grabbed his cape, slung it over myself, and shuffled out of the room. Wondering where he could be I headed towards the main computer room. Sure enough when I got there Bats was sitting at the monitor, cape-less, reading something. I walked up behind him and stood there. "Missing something?" I asked.

Bats spun the chair around and looked me up and down, a smirk playing on his features. "You don't look too bad in it."

My grin became bigger and I sat down next to him, handing him the cape back. "Thanks."

He only nodded, attached it to himself, and continued typing. I stayed in the chair and read over his report, just enjoying the silence. "How long did you sleep for?" I asked.

"About 16 hours." Shocked I whipped my around to look at him.

"16 hours? How long was I asleep for then?"

"About 20. You were close to 21 but you didn't quite make it."

I sat back in my chair, slightly shocked. "No more of this working 80 hours straight."

"I agree."

The silence was broken yet again, but this time it was my stomach sounding like a dying walrus.

"Hungry?" Bats asked with a raised eyebrow.

I blushed a little bit, not expecting my stomach to be that loud. "Just a bit."

Bats saved the work he was doing and pushed away from the computer. "Come on, I'm sure we have something edible in the kitchen." He stood and walked down the hallway. "You coming?" he asked, calling over his shoulder. I got up from my chair and raced behind him.

"Are you offering to make me dinner?" I asked.

"It's actually breakfast time, but yes, I am." He said, grinning. My steps faltered but he kept walking, and I watched him. He seemed a little more relaxed after finally sleeping, which was good.

"Alright then, it's a date," I muttered, the grin never leaving my face.


	18. Maid of Honor

Hey guys! I know I've been gone a while, but here's the next chapter. I'm so close to finishing college, so hopefully come August once I'm done I'll be able to write to my little hearts content whenever I want to! I also wanted to let you guys know that I published this story on my Wattpad account and added pictures of Evie's outfit for the dance if you guys want to check it out. My username is "free100flygirl" and it's the only story I have up right now. As always, please leave a review! The next episode I publish we'll see the Justice Lords and the twist I put on that story. Have fun!

"I can't believe I let you guys talk me into this," I grumbled as Shayera poked me with another bobby pin.

"Would you stop it? You look great and you're going to have so much fun!" Shayera said as she finished pulling up the top half of my hair.

"I doubt that fun is going to be involved. Why do I have to go again? Why can't Diana be the only one going?" I said, pulling out a few strands of my hair from the ponytail that Shayera had just finished pulling up.

Smacking my hand away and curling the strands, Shayera replied, "Because it's a large event with many political and rich figures being there. The League should be represented and Superman thought two should be enough".

And of course, he had picked me too. "Evie, stop moving. I'm almost done," Shay said. Huffing and crossing my arms, I sat in the chair as she sprayed my hair with hairspray and gave me a onceover. "There, all ready," she said as she turned me to face the mirror. I was surprised as I looked at my reflection.

My eyes were surrounded by black eyeliner, eyeshadow, and thick lashes, which made the blue of my eyes look electric. My lips were painted a nude color, and my skin was absolutely flawless. My hair was left in loose curls, with half of it loosely pulled up with small curls framing my face. My dress was a beautiful ombré style, with black at the top and bottom which faded into various shades of purple around the middle, where the material collected and cinched at my waist. I stood up and realized I was a few inches taller thanks to the black lace heels that I was wearing.

"Wow," I breathed out, taking in my appearance.

"You look hot," Shay said, giving me another once over.

"I've never dressed up like this before," I said, unable to take my eyes off of myself. That is, until Diana walked in. Then all eyes were on her. She was in a plain black dress that accentuated all of her curves, and her hair was in loose waves. She had minimal makeup on and she looked absolutely stunning. Damn Greek goddess princesses.

"Evie, you look very nice. Are you ready to leave?" Diana asked.

"Yeah, sure," I said, grabbing my black clutch that held my communicator and staff. We said our goodbyes to Shay and walked to the jet.

"Have you ever been to Paris, Evie?" Diana asked.

"No, this will be the first."

"I think you'll like it. It is extremely romantic, and the architecture is amazing."

I smiled, knowing that Diana has always been interested in architecture and stepped into the jet. Once we buckled ourselves in and got started, it only took a few minutes before we landed and stepped out. I looked around, amazed at the sights. We were standing outside of a museum, which was impressive enough, but the surrounding area was filled with cafes and clubs that were covered in different lights, and music types.

Diana had started walking towards the entrance and I followed, trying to look as graceful as she did and not trip over my heels. Cameras started flashing, which didn't help my balance as I was partially blinded every three seconds, as we walked up to the doorman. We handed him our invitations, and after reading the names, the doorman smiled and practically bowed. "Bonsoir Wonder Woman, Aquatica," he said looking at us when he said our names.

"Bonsoir monsieur," Diana said, smiling and walking past him. I just smiled and followed her into the entrance. We walked in and both admired the space shuttles and satellites hanging from the ceiling before our eyes swept over the crowd. One second people were talking in small groups among themselves, and the next second a hush had fallen over the crowd and everyone had turned to look at us.

"Uh-oh," I whispered as the crowd started closing in on us, excited smiles on their faces. "You're on your own here," I whispered and quickly snuck out of the circle around us and over towards the empty bar. Nobody had noticed I had slipped away since they were all pestering Diana with questions. I turned to the bartender and ordered a drink, leaning against the bar and watching the crowd swarm Diana.

"Drinking already? You just got here," a man said next to me. I glanced over and then did a double take. Here I was, all the way in Paris, staring into the blue eyes of the one and only Bruce Wayne.

I stared at him for a few more seconds in disbelief before a small smile crept onto my face and I gently shook my head. "Well, you of all people should know that parties are not my strong suit."

Bruce hummed in agreement while looking over at the group that was surrounding Diana. "Do you think we should help her?"

I thought about it, for a moment. "If it were a work thing," I said, putting 'work' in air quotes, "then yes. But Diana is a big girl. She can handle some questions by herself."

Bruce finished his drink before setting the glass on the bar counter. "Good, that means I have you all to myself." I quirked an eyebrow up, wondering what he meant. His answer was a smirk before he grabbed my hand and led me to the dance floor.

"Uh Bruce, I don't dance. At all," I said yet again trying not to trip over my heels.

"That's because you've never danced with me. Trust me?" He said, releasing my hand and facing me.

I stared into his eyes for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Of course I do," I said, placing my right hand in his outstretched one and my left hand on his shoulder.

"Good," He said, while placing his other hand on my waist. "Just follow my lead and you'll be fine."

I nodded and tried not to look down at my feet, but finding it a little too awkward to keep staring into Bruce's eyes, especially with how close we were. So I settled to looking at his outfit, not really noticing it before. The tuxedo he was wearing was tailored perfectly for him, the jacket and shirt both clinging to the muscles I know he had. "You clean up well," I said, finally glancing back at his face.

"I would say the same to you, but that would be an understatement. You look gorgeous, Eves."

Blushing, I turned my face away from his and glanced over the crowd again, a small smile officially parking itself on my face. "So what exactly are you doing here tonight? Supes didn't send you too, did he?" I asked.

"No, I'm here on business. Plus, I never miss a good party," He said, the smirk appearing back on his face.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "Mhmm, sure. Is this Wayne business or Bat business?"

"A little of both."

I nodded and kept following Bruce's lead with the dancing, noticing how easy it was. I wasn't even paying attention and I hadn't tripped once. "This is nice," I said. "I can't remember when I last danced with someone."

"I can't remember the last time I danced with someone I cared about," Bruce said, looking directly in my eyes. I smiled and looked back in his eyes, about to say something until a dark shadow passed over the skylight directly above us. My eyebrows scrunched in confusion before I realized the shadows were morphing into a human shape. "Eves, what...?"

"Move!" I said, pushing him behind me just as the glass fell and large shards fell over top of us, but before they could land on us I put a small sheet of ice up to catch them. I dumped the ice and glass on the ground and saw that 6 men had lowered themselves in by ropes hanging from a helicopter. I assumed they were military based on the tactical uniforms they were wearing. As soon as they burst through the ceiling the crowd started screaming and running away from the gunfire.

"I need to go," Bruce and I said at the same time. I lost sight of him in the crowd as he went to presumably change into Batman. I turned towards the group of men who were surrounding a blonde woman in a blue dress.

"Down with the monarchy! Freedom for Kaznia!" One of the men yelled. Two more knocked out the bodyguards of the woman before grabbing her. The leader gestured for another guard to put a vest around the blonde. I started to make my way forward before a guard stepped in front of me.

"I don't think so," He said, grabbing my upper arm and spinning me around, away from the scene. I immediately grabbed his arm and flipped him over me. He landed on his back and I grabbed my staff out of my clutch and extended it. Two more men were rushing towards me, trying to keep me away from the blonde the men were after. Out of my peripheral vision I saw Diana pushing her way through the crowd towards the blonde. Figuring she had that part taken care of I started to get to work on my two guys. Dodging the first few punches, I jumped on top of the table, spun around, and froze the soldier's feet to the floor. I slid off the table and walked over towards them, continuing to dodge their attempts at getting free and slammed their heads together, knocking them out.

"There, that was easy," I muttered. I looked back to the center of the room and saw that Diana was flying through the air with the blonde girl in her arms, and the soldiers were starting to put up a fight. Diana set the blonde down and immediately knocked out a soldier who had started to shoot at her.

I finally kicked off my heels and ran over towards two soldiers who were shooting at the ceiling, and obviously not thinking about the risk of glass or bullets raining down on the innocent bystanders. I slung myself around the back of the one soldier, using him to propel myself forward and kick his buddy in the face. I saw him land on the ground before arms wrapped around me, trapping me. "You are too much trouble," the soldier said in the strange accent that the leader had spoken with. I struggled, unable to get my arms out from his grasp before I heard a loud thud, the arms around me slackened, and the soldier dropped. I stood up, looking down at him to see a dinner plate next to his head that wasn't there a minute ago. My eyes scanned the room, and I saw that Bruce had locked eyes with me and was straitening up his bowtie. He gave me a slight nod, and realizing that he had thrown the plate, I gave him a grin and a wink in return.

A small explosion could be heard outside causing the room to shake. Once I got my footing I ran outside and saw that the helicopter had crashed, and Diana was dragging two more soldiers out of the wreckage. They were both clutching their heads, so Diana sat them on the curb while police sirens wailed in the distance, getting louder the closer they got to us.

"Nice work," I said, looking at the damage done to the helicopter.

"Thank you. You too, for keeping those men off my back," she said, gesturing to the other soldiers who were being led out by the museums security. "Before all this happened, where did you go? I didn't see you for a little bit."

"Oh, I was just walking around, mingling with the crowd," I said, trying not to mention Bruce. My eyes scanned the crowd but I didn't see him, although knowing him he was probably standing on a rooftop somewhere watching us.

"Really? I didn't take you as the mingling sort," Diana said and I knew she had somehow figured out that I was lying.

"I'm sometimes the mingling sort. It all depends who I'm mingling with."

"Mhmm," Diana said, giving me her look that meant she didn't believe me. We stood in silence until the police arrived and the soldiers were taken away.

"That was fabulous!" a voice behind us exclaimed. We both turned and saw that the blonde from before was heading our way. She pushed in between Diana and I and started gesturing around Diana wildly. "I've never seen anyone break a helicopter before."

Trying not to get offended at being ignored, I looked over this blonde's bodyguards who had both gotten the butt of a gun smashed into their faces. They both looked in pain, but they continued to wear their sunglasses and ear communicators, so I figured they weren't hurt too bad.

"It was my first time," Diana admitted, looking bashful.

"Well I can't thank you enough. I'm supposed to have guards for this sort of thing, you know?" The blonde said, pointedly glaring back at the two guards. They both looked sheepish and I felt bad for them.

"If I recall, they both took a beating for you. Perhaps a little more compassion would go a long way," I said, crossing my arms.

The blonde spun around and looked at me, "Who exactly are you again?" She asked, looking me up and down. I could definitely tell she was judging the way I looked, especially when her eyes hovered over my bare feet. Before I could retort, Diana jumped back into the conversation.

"I also wouldn't blame them. Someone went through a lot of trouble to get to you. Any ideas?"

The blonde shrugged her off as if this was a common occurrence. "I'm the princess of Kaznia. Lots of people in the world don't like Kaznia." Ah, so there's the reason why she acts like this…she's a literal princess. The girl looked down at the ground and said in a lower voice, "People in Kaznia don't like Kaznia."

"Tell me what you know," Diana said, immediately jumping in to help this girl.

"Not tonight, darling. It's still early. Places to go, parties to crash," she said, flipping her hair around so far that she almost smacked me in the face with it. The ringing of a cell phone interrupted the princess's party plans as the guard handed the phone over to her. "On the other hand, I've never hung out with a super hero before. Excuse me," she said as she answered the phone.

Diana and I looked at each other and I just rolled my eyes. Judging by the side of the conversation we could hear, this girl's father wasn't too happy about what had occurred. "Let me stay, I couldn't be any safer," The girl said before her eyes got bright and she turned towards Diana. "Wonder Woman will be with me." She put her palms together, begging Diana to go along with the plan. I snorted and shook my head, because I could already see Diana caving.

With a small smirk Diana nodded and the blonde almost jumped with joy. She hung up the phone and threw it at her guard before looking at Diana. "We need to get you some new clothes, darling. I know a boutique that will open for me if I ask them nicely," She said, dragging Diana by the arm towards her car.

"I thought you were going to tell me more about the incident," Diana said.

"No, that's just what I let my father think so I could go clubbing tonight."

"Clubbing?" Diana asked, obviously not used to the night life of a twenty something year old girl.

"Look, I'm getting married soon. This is my last night in Paris as a free woman."

"I'm not really following…" Diana said, clearly confused and way in over her head.

"I'm a world class party girl," the princess said.

"Yeah, more like a world class spoiled brat" I muttered, obviously not quiet enough because she glared at me before continuing.

"I intend to go out with a bang. Several, if it can be arranged." She started walking to the car, her guards following her. "You coming?" she asked when Diana didn't follow right away. Diana turned towards me, silently asking if I was going with her.

"Oh no, I'm good here. You do not want me to be in a car with her for longer than three seconds. It may get ugly." I said, slowly backing away towards the museum. "Have fun though, darling," I mocked before waving and walking into the building. I went in the guest room to try and look for my shoes that I had thrown off earlier.

"Looking for these?" a voice rang out. I turned around and there was Bruce, holding up my shoes and my clutch.

"Yes, actually. Thank you for holding onto them for me," I said, walking over to him and taking them, carefully slipping them back on.

"No problem. Are you going back to the tower tonight?" He asked, steadying, me since I almost stumbled buckling the strap.

"I don't know. Diana went with whoever those soldiers were trying to take so I don't have anything better to do." I said, placing both feet on the ground and straightening myself back up.

"Ah, so I see you met Princess Audrey," he said and I could hear the laughter in his voice.

"Oh, is that what her name is?" I asked.

"Yes, I've had a few run-ins with her before. She seems nice enough," He said but tapered off at the end.

"But?" I asked, knowing there was more than what he was telling me.

"But she is a definite party girl. Sometimes gets in way over her head and doesn't care about the consequences."

"Yeah, I picked up on that as well. At least Diana will hopefully reign her in a bit tonight."

Voices came from the hallway along with footsteps. The guests were moving back into the room. "Come on, let's get out of here," Bruce said, grabbing my hand and walking towards the side entrance.

I followed him and shivered a little bit in the chilly night air. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"First, to the jet so you can pick up a spare uniform, and then to my hotel room."

My steps faltered there when he said that and I tripped, almost face planting on the sidewalk before Bruce caught me and spun me around, so that he was basically dipping me backwards and I couldn't help but notice how close our faces were.

"Back to your room?" I asked, my voice quiet now.

Bruce quirked an eyebrow and his smirk came back before he righted me, but kept his hands on my arms. "Yes, to my room. We both need to change, and I need to go over the files with you. I told you, I was here on Bat business as well and could use your help."

"Oh," I muttered, my cheeks turning red. "Let's go then."

Bruce let go of my arms but slid his hand down so it was grasped in mine. He didn't pay any attention to it, so I tried to do the same, even though I was failing miserably.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We stopped by the jet that was parked a few streets over and I grabbed a spare uniform that we kept in one of the storage bins and headed back to the hotel. Bruce went in through the lobby while I flew up, not wanting to cause a scene; either as to why Bruce Wayne was with a superhero, or why that superhero looked like she had just walked through a minefield. My dress was torn in multiple places and I had a thin layer of dust on my arms and face. I landed on his balcony and waited for the large French doors to open. While I was waiting, I looked at the skyline and was surprised to see the Eifel Tower a short distance away. The way it was lit up at night made it look stunning, and I could easily see why the city was known as the "city of love".

The turning of the handles made me turn around to see Bruce opening the doors and gesturing for me to come inside. I stepped in and looked around the room before I started quietly laughing.

"What's so funny?" Bruce asked, closing the doors and turning back around.

"This is just a hotel room and it's bigger than my whole apartment."

Bruce only smiled and shook his head at first. "You know, I could buy you another apartment, a bigger one."

I immediately shook my head. "Absolutely not. Besides, I kind of like my apartment. It's kind of small, but that only means I don't have to clean as much."

Now it was Bruce's turn to shake his head before he gave me another onceover. "Why don't you go get changed? Then I'll explain all of this."

"Okay, I'll be out in a few minutes." I said as I walked over to the bathroom. I closed the door and turned around, taking in the porcelain tub sitting in the center of the room, the marble countertops, and the shower that looked like it was made of stone. Rolling my eyes at the extravagance of it all, I stepped out of my dress and hung it up on the hook on the back of the door. I slid my shoes off, turned the shower water on to scorching, and stepped in letting the hot water wash away the dirt, sweat, and ash that had been on my skin.

I carefully took out all the bobby pins and elastics that were holding my hair in place and set them on the ledge. I fully stepped under the water and let the hot water soothe my sore muscles and rinse the hairspray out of my hair. Once I deemed myself clean, I shut the water off and wrapped myself in one of the fluffy white towels while I combed my hair out.

Once my hair stopped dripping, I scrunched my hair, slipped on my uniform, and opened the bathroom door. Steam billowed out behind me as I stepped through and glanced around the room. Bruce had already changed into Batman's outfit, minus the mask, and was sitting at the desk in the corner that had papers and photographs strewn about. I walked over to the desk and looked over his shoulder.

"Is this for the case," I asked, looking at the photographs of what I assumed to be the royal family.

"Yes, I'll give you a quick history lesson before we leave," Bruce said, pulling out a folder and handing it to me. "Kasnia is a small country in Europe who has been battling civil wars constantly pretty much since its inception. The North and South disagree with most things, economics, politics, you name it. Little is known about the country in general. They keep things close to the vest."

I nodded as I glanced over the file. "They seem innocent enough. Why are they on your radar?"

Bruce opened a new folder and slid it across to me. "A few weeks ago there was a break-in in a lab and high grade weapons were stolen. Some of those weapons had digital traces put on them. Before the traces were disabled, they were in Kasnia."

"What would a small country like Kasnia need with high grade weapons?" I asked, closing the folder and setting it up on the desk.

"I'm not sure, but that's what we're going to find out. There's a lab around here that has similar weapons that are being made. I have information saying a break-in will happen tonight."

"And we're going to stop it?" I asked.

"Only if you don't have plans," Bruce said, looking up at me while pulling his hood on.

I chuckled and straightened up, "And miss the fun? No thanks."

"Good," Bruce said standing up. "We can leave now and get there to wait for them."

We left the hotel and used his jet to fly to the lab, which was only about 10 minutes away. We landed the jet and used the air vents to get into the building undetected. From there, we sat on the rafters and waited for the thieves to show up.

Looking down at the ground, I gently chuckled. "What's so funny?" Bats asked.

"Nothing. This just reminds me of the first time we met." I said, glancing over at him. We were on the rafters, in a lab, waiting for some weird stuff to happen. It's almost comforting to see a lot hasn't changed."

There was a ghost of a smile on Bats' face as he looked at me. "Quite a lot has changed since then, actually. I had no idea who you were. I didn't like you, and I certainly didn't trust you. Now quite the opposite is true."

I smiled at myself, knowing this show of emotions was rare. I nodded in agreement and left it at that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Bats was still staring at me. He noticed that I saw and hesitated before opening his mouth. "Eves-" he got out before he was cut off by the alarms going off.

There were bangs coming from the hallway and the security alarm was going off. "They're here," I said, standing up. Bats stood up, whatever he was about to say dying on his lips as he became serious again.

The alarm suddenly cut off and more bangs could be heard from the hallway before the door was blown off its hinges and landed in the middle of the room. Three men in grey body suits ran in and went straight for the vault. Bats and I looked at each other before he nodded to me and stepped back into the darkness. I watched as the three men took a computer chip out of the vault, placed it in a briefcase, and then went to run out of the room.

I hopped from the ceiling and laid out a sheet of ice in front of them, sending them sliding towards the door. I walked up behind them as they gathered themselves. "You shouldn't take things that aren't yours," I said, bracing myself for a fight. The men turned to leave, but saw a dark figure standing in the way of the door.

The one man fired a shot at Batman, before he dodge out of its way and ran around them. I spun one of the other men around, landing a punch on his face and encased his hand blaster in ice, rendering it useless. The third man lunged at me, gripping me by my shoulders and hauling me towards the ground. He pinned my shoulders to the ground while he just looked at me, as if he wasn't sure what to do with me.

Something fell next to me and I recognized one of Bats' tear gas holders. "I would hold your breath," I said, just as the gas released. I took a breath and used the distraction to flip the soldier around so I had him pinned to the ground.

Bats narrowly dodged another cannon blast that hit the catwalk above us, and swung back around. I saw the catwalk start to fall and knew there was no way I would be able to move myself and the coughing man beneath me in time. I wrapped my arm around the man's shoulder, sat up, and stuck my arm up, hoping that Bats and I would be on the same page. And we were. A few seconds before the catwalk would have fallen on us, Bats grabbed my arm and swung all three of us onto the adjoining ledge.

I dropped the man on the ground and watched as Bats undid the arm cannon and handcuffed him. The other men had left with the distraction, and the computer chip.

"Are you alright?" Bats asked.

I nodded, still staring at the man who was starting to come to.

"Who are you working for?" Bats asked him, going into full Batman mode. The man answered in what I assumed to be Kasnian, a language I certainly did not speak. What surprised me the most, was the fact that Bats answered him in the same language. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point. Despite the mask the man was wearing, I could pretty much see the fear in his eyes as Bats leaned closer to him, probably demanding answers. Knowing I wouldn't be of any help in this interrogation, I flew over the railing and put out a few fires that were burning from the cannon fire. The police would already have a theft to deal with. They didn't need to be putting out fires as well.

Once the fires were put out Bats walked over to me. "Let's go. I got our information."

"Alright. Where to now?" I asked, walking out the door with him and back to his jet.

"I need to talk to Diana. She should know what's going on, especially with her new friend Princess Audrey."

"I take it the men were Kasnian?"

"Yes, special forces with their military. The bigger question is, why would their military need all these weapons?"

"You're guess is as good as mine. But let's go, the sun is starting to come up and we all know how much you like the sun," I said, nudging his shoulder. He only shook his head before climbing into his jet.

A few moments later we were at our hotel room, the one Diana and I were supposed to share after the gala. Judging by how both the beds were still completely made, I assumed I wasn't the only one to not come home last night.

"Late night," Bats said mirroring my thoughts.

"Apparently," I muttered, flopping myself down on the loveseat. Bats took a seat on the chair next to me as we waited for Diana to come back. Thankfully, it didn't take very long because a few minutes later the door opened and Diana came in, wearing a new dress. She took her shoes off and still hadn't noticed our presence.

"You're keeping late hours," Bats said. Diana gasped and turned around to look at us. She looked a little surprised to see both of us there.

"You should talk. Checking up on me?" She asked. I quirked an eyebrow up at that.

"Not especially. But I do read the papers," He said.

"You're point?" Diana asked, growing a little defensive.

"You've been running in rarefied circles. I thought you should know some of those people aren't always what they appear to be." Bruce said, standing up from his seat.

Diana took a seat in a chair on the opposite side of the room. "If you're talking about Princess Audrey, she's a sweet girl. A little spoiled, perhaps," Diana said. I snorted.

"That's an understatement." Diana shot me a look and continued.

"She's still sweet."

Bats clearly wasn't buying it. "Several hours ago, Evie and I captured a burglar. Part of a team stealing classified weapons technology from STAR labs, among other places."

"So?" Diana asked.

"He was a Kasnian spy," I said. "He works in the Kasnian military as a special ops team."

Diana looked shocked, but that looked turned back into a defensive one. "I don't believe Audrey would knowingly be involved in anything like that…" She trailed off as she saw the pointed looks on our faces. "But it wouldn't hurt to ask her. I'll speak with her tonight at her engagement party. I've been invited."

Bats nodded. "Alright then. We'll listen in on the coms and be backup if need be. Now, if you will both excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Bats said, walking out to the balcony and grappling to his jet. Diana and I stood there in silence for a few moments before she continued undoing her hair.

"What are you going to do today?" She asked. I walked over to the dresser and pulled out a tshirt and sweatpants that I had unpacked the day before and started changing.

"I'm sleeping. I was up all night last night." I said, putting my uniform away.

"Oh, up all night with Batman?" She asked, a smirk appearing on her face.

"Yeah, did you not hear us say we caught a burglar?"

"Oh, I heard. I just wasn't sure if there was anything else you guys had done last night."

A heat rose to my cheeks and I rolled my eyes before climbing into my bed. "No, Diana, there wasn't."

"Alright then, just thought I would ask."

It wasn't soon after that I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, the sun was setting and Diana was getting ready for the party. I got out of bed, brushed my hair and changed into my uniform and grabbed a piece of fruit that was sitting in a bowl on the dresser. Diana stepped out of the bathroom in a dress similar to last nights, and we flew up to the roof, where Bats was already waiting for us. "You know what to do, we will be able to hear what you say through the comms devices.

"I know. This is pointless, Audrey doesn't know anything." Diana said before flying off.

"She's dead set on Audrey being innocent in this whole thing," I said, climbing into the jet.

"I know. A part of me wishes she's right, just for her sake," Bats said, closing the hatch and starting the jet. We parked in the middle of the surrounding woods of the castle as Diana made her way up to Audrey's room. We stayed quiet so we could hear what she was saying.

After bringing up the subject, Diana seemed satisfied with Audrey saying she had no idea about the thefts, and they both quickly moved on to other conversations. A few minutes later Bats and I could hear the low humming of the crowd in the background and knew that Diana was walking around the party.

"Diana, here, I want you to meet my fiancé," I could distantly hear Audrey say.

"Vandal Savage?" Diana exclaimed. Hearing that I sat up and was on full alert.

"Did she say Vandal Savage?" I gasped.

"Yes, but that doesn't make sense," Bats said, turning to look at me. "Savage was left in an altered timeline. It should be impossible that he's here."

"Yeah, but he still is here," I said, slightly rubbing my arms from the light scarring Savage had left on me the last time we met. I went back to listening to Diana.

"Do you have any idea who he is?" Diana exclaimed, her voice growing louder and angrier.

"Diana!" Audrey exclaimed, surprised by her outburst.

"Vandal Savage is a Nazi war criminal. He was-"

"My grandfather," A deep voice cut Diana off. A voice I recognized very well. "I'm Vandal Savage the third. A pleasure to meet you."

An awkward silence followed the encounter before Audrey scolded Diana for being rude.

"It's understandable. My grandfather was a very evil man."

"He wasn't a man, he was a monster," Diana said.

"I've dedicated my life to doing good work. It's my way of trying to restore my family's lost honor." Savage said.

"The resemblance is uncanny," Diana said, disbelief dripping off her voice. I couldn't listen to him any longer as I took my comm out and set it on the dash of the jet. Bats turned towards me, lowering his own comm.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

I took a shaky breath in and nodded. "You never met him. Out of everything we've seen, he was one of the scariest. There was no emotion in his eyes. He sat there and tortured us, and killed thousands of people in the war, and he didn't care about any of it." I said, lightly tracing my arms again.

Bats placed a hand over top of mine, but his eyes unfocused as he listened to Diana's half of the conversation. "I think she's leaving. She just got done speaking with Savage privately."

I nodded, trying to put all the pieces together in my head. "If Savage has been stealing all these weapons, marrying Audrey makes him part of the royal family, plus the Kasnians involvement in the new space shuttle…"

"It doesn't sound good," Bats finished for me. "Diana, go back to your hotel room and change, Evie and I will take a look at all of this from our end." He shut off the comms, started the jet, and flew back to his hotel room for the night. By the time we got into his room after parking the jet, it was late and the night was pretty silent. I stayed on the balcony until Bruce had changed.

The balcony doors opened and I turned around and saw Bruce standing there in a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dress pants, which is what I assumed to be his version of a casual outfit. I noticed he had another shirt in his hand and I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Oh, uh, it's for you," He said seeing that I noticed the shirt. "I figured you would want to change and you didn't have any clothes here." I swore I could see his cheeks getting red but in the dark it was too hard to tell. I gently took the shirt out of his hand and folded it over my arm.

"Thank you," I murmured. Bruce only gave a small smile and stepped to the side so I could walk in. I went straight to the bathroom to change. Throwing my uniform on the counter I slipped the shirt over my head and finished doing the buttons. Thankfully, Bruce was a good foot taller than I was because the dress easily came down to almost my knees and way past my hands. I rolled the sleeves up and gave myself a onceover in the mirror. I noticed the shirt was the same light blue color as his eyes and smiled to myself, noticing for the first time that the shirt smelled like his cologne and whatever else made Bruce smell like Bruce. Quietly shushing the butterflies that were in my stomach I opened the bathroom door and stepped into the room.

Bruce was sitting in front of his laptop looking at what appeared to be old history records on Vandal Savage. "What do you think?" I asked, walking over and looking at the files. Bruce turned his head and looked at me.

"I think you look great in my shirts," He smirked.

I blushed and tried to keep the smile off my face. "I meant about Savage."

"I know…but you do look good in my shirt."

Feeling my cheeks heat up I was saved from saying anything from the communicator going off.

"Diana," Bats said.

"Hey. Have you found anything?" Diana asked us. I pulled up a chair and sat down to look at all of the folders.

"Not anything concrete. Have you?" Bruce said.

"No, but I'm still not sure it's really him." Diana said.

"But if Savage is still alive then the pieces begin to fit," Bruce said, scrolling some more on his laptop.

"I don't know," Diana said, still sounding unconvinced. "I had J'onn look up his birth certificate and school records. It looks like it all checks out," She finished.

"Papers can be forged," Bruce said, leaning to the side and setting his chin on his hand.

"Well, whether he's our Savage or a sequel, he makes me nervous." Diana said, actually sounding worried. I nodded in agreement with that.

"He should, look at what we've got so far. A Kasnian operative stealing military secrets, Kasnia spearheading the International Space Station…"

"Which is great cover for avoiding the weapons embargo the country is supposed to be under," I said finally speaking up.

"If that's all Savage is up to, we're lucky." Bruce looked past me and was staring at the TV that was muted behind me. "Hold on a minute," He picked up the remote and unmuted the TV to listen to the news report.

"At the royal palace in Kasnia, sources confirmed that King Gustav has suffered a serious stroke," Bruce and I looked at each other, both with the same unbelieving look on our faces.

"That's convenient," I said.

"Did you get all that, Diana?" Bruce asked. At first we didn't get an answer besides the wind whipping past her communicator.

"I'm on my way to warn Audrey."

"We'll meet you there," Bruce said, getting out of his chair. I let out a sigh before heading back into the bathroom to change. I was out a few moments later and Bruce had already changed back into Batman. "Ready?" He asked.

I nodded and followed him up to the balcony where he swung both of us up to the roof, where his jet was parked. I never understood how people didn't notice the jet just parked there, but I didn't pay much attention to it. If this is how Bruce worked, who was I to question it?

"I'm going to fly separate, see if I can catch up to Diana," I said forming a disk and stepping on.

"Alright, but be careful," Bruce said. I nodded and flew up and out of the city. Just as I got past where I knew Audrey was staying, I saw a jet take off with Diana following behind it. I sped up to catch Diana and we followed the jet together.

"Glad you could make it," Diana said.

"Likewise," I replied. Suddenly, the back of the jet opened and a man with a jetpack stood there before flying towards us. "I don't think he's part of the welcoming committee," I said. The man opened his mouth and sonic rings were shot at us. Diana and I both dodged them and looked at each other. I looked down at the ground where they landed and saw the Earth had been completely dug up. So those sonic things can really pack a punch. "Those things came out of his mouth!" I yelled. Diana just turned back to him and flew faster.

The man dove under us and swung around, so now he was behind us. He must have dove from the top because the next thing I knew he was on top of Diana, forcing her to the ground. They both scrapped on the ground together for a few minutes before Diana hit him hard enough to get him off of her.

"Bats," I said, clicking on my communicator. "Someone is attacking us. I think we're in the country. All I can see is a large windmill," I said.

"What's attacking you?" He asked and I could hear the frustration in his voice from him not being there.

"Uh, a guy who can scream sonic blasts," I said, watching as Diana dodged the sonic blasts again.

"What?" Bats asked, but I ignored him as I saw the man come around to Diana's left, and she didn't see him.

"I have to go," I said, flying towards them. I could hear Bats in my ear calling for me, but I tuned him out. "Diana!" I yelled, trying to get her attention but it was too late. The sonic blasts had hit her and she was thrown out of the sky. As I was watching her fall, I didn't notice the man turn and face me. The next thing I knew, the blast had hit me and I yelled as I fell too, since the impact had shattered my disk. The last thing I remember was looking up at the moon before I hit the ground.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I swore I heard a voice calling my name, but that didn't make sense since all I could really hear was a ringing in my ears. The voice got louder and I fluttered my eyes open only to close them tightly again.

"Five more minutes," I mumbled.

"Sorry Eves," the voice said. I opened my eyes again and saw the hazy outline of Bats sitting overtop of me. I groaned, remembering what had happened to me.

"How long was I out?" I asked, slowly sitting up.

"Careful, you took one hell of a fall," Bats said, putting a hand on my back to help me. "And about half an hour. I found Diana before I found you."

"Gee, thanks," I said, shooting him a look.

"I only found her first since she took out a barn. You're in the middle of a field. I had a bigger area to search," he said, gently taking my arm and lifting me up to my feet.

"Sorry," I said, shaking out the soreness in my body. "Is she okay?" I said.

"She's fine. She's angry though. Audrey moved up the wedding. It's happening now. She went to go stop it."

"Isn't that breaking the law or something?" I asked, accepting the water that Bats held out to me.

"That's what I told her, but you know Diana. Once she sets her mind to something…" he trailed off, leading me to the jet. "I'm going to go help her. Are you coming, or do you need to take a break?"

I scoffed and tossed the water back to him. "It takes more than that to get rid of me. Let's go," I said, climbing into the jet.

Bats hopped in after me and we took off. A few minutes later we were nearing the palace when a screeching sound could be heard. "What's that?" I asked.

"Diana. Looks like she isn't too welcomed at this wedding," Bats said. I looked ahead of us and saw three jets were following and shooting at Diana. "Hold on," Bats said. I leaned back into my seat and strapped myself in tighter. Bats pushed a button and a laser flew out and took the wing off of one of the jets that was following Diana. Now, we had the attention of some of the others, and soon enough, more missiles were flying at us.

Bats rolled the jet over and dodged them while I kept my eyes closed, trying to fend off the nauseating feeling in my stomach. I wasn't used to moving around this much and going so fast. When I opened my eyes, we were heading towards the woods, where soldiers were shooting at Diana. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a missile heading towards us.

"Bats…" I said, waiting for him to dodge out of the missiles way. As it got closer, I got more panicked. "Bruce!" I yelled now, panic completely overtaking me.

"Get ready to eject," Bat said. I braced myself and seconds later I was thrown into the sky, a parachute coming out and I hung on for dear life. I probably could have flown out of there, but my adrenaline was making my hands shake and I wasn't sure I would be able to fly.

As I got closer to the ground I let go and rolled behind a bush, trying to figure out where everyone was. The woods were silent, which meant no one else was shooting at us. Which was a good thing. A tree branch snapped behind me and I spun around, making a dagger of ice.

"It's just me," Bats said, making his way over towards me. I melted the dagger and stood up and met him halfway. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little shaken up. Are you?" He nodded but looked at his jet that was now burning.

"Sorry about your jet. Do you want me to put it out?" I asked.

"No, don't. It can be used as a distraction if any other soldiers come through here. We need to go get Diana. I haven't heard from her, I'm assuming she was captured." We could see the castle from here, but it was still a long way away.

"Here, hang on." I said, forming a disk and creating a higher wall on the side than I usually would. Bruce stepped on and I got us to the castle in a few minutes. We snuck around on a tower before slipping inside without anyone spotting us. Bats pulled up a blueprint of the castle on his mini computer and we snuck around until we were above the dungeon. He placed a device on some wires and hacked into the security cameras. We could see Diana chained to the wall, unable to get out.

"Now what?" I whispered. He flipped through the feeds until he saw a hallway that didn't have any guards in it. He switched his communicator on before speaking.

"Batman to Watchtower," He whispered. In the quiet I could hear Flash's loud voice and chuckled as Bats winced a little at the sudden noise.

"Hey, hope you're having fun. I'm up here watching the paint dry."

"Wonder Woman is being held captive. She's too well guarded for Evie and I to extract her."

"Need backup?" Flash asked, the joking tone leaving his voice. "I'll grab the two Johns and we can-" Flash was cut off as we could hear J'onn speaking in the background.

"We have a developing situation," J'onn said.

"What is it? I've got Bats on the other line," Flash said.

"Well, look who's back," Lantern said and I assumed they had found out that Vandal Savage was indeed back.

Bats and I listened as Savage pretty much told the world his evil plans. He was firing meteors at wherever and whoever he wanted to.

"This weapon needs to be destroyed at once. Its destructive potential is unimaginable." J'onn said.

"I don't have to imagine it. I saw the Utarians use it to blow an uninhabited moon out of orbit," Lantern said.

"You guys get all that?" Flash asked us.

"Most of it," Bats said. "We'll have to fend for ourselves. Taking out that weapon is top priority." Bats shut the comms off and looked at me.

"Looks like it's just you and me," I said. "What's your plan?"

"We'll have to distract the other guards," Bats said, going back to look at the security feeds. A guard had just walked over in front of Diana's cell. "Follow my lead," He said, climbing out from where we were hiding.

He threw a batarang out from around the corner, causing it to get stuck in the wall. The guard looked at it but didn't go near it. That is, until the batarang exploded, leaving a small hole in the stone wall. Other guards rushed around the corner towards the hole, leaving the rest of the hallways cleared.

We ran over to Diana's cell and picked the lock, opening the door. Bats stepped in and started undoing her shackles while I stayed by the door as watch. "That won't distract them for long."

"Not long at all," I said as two guards ran towards us. I jumped and kicked the first guard in the face as the second one ran past me and towards Bats. Bats flipped the guard over and as they both were laying on the floor groaning, the elevator doors opened and three more guards stepped off and ran towards us. They stopped and just stared at us for a second, to see what we would do. A second later they fired at us, just as I formed a block of ice to stop their bullets and Bats jumped up and knocked them out with his batarangs.

Once all three guards were unconscious, we finished releasing Diana. "I need to find Audrey," She said. Bats and I agreed and we went to the upper floors.

"Maybe she's still in her room? Obviously she knows about Savage now. If she was being kept prisoner she wouldn't be in the dungeons," I said running up a flight of stairs.

"You're right," Diana said as she ran past me. Curse her abnormally long legs. We got to a hallway and we could hear banging coming from the door at the end of the hallway.

"I think we found her," I said. As we approached the door we could definitely hear Audrey yelling. Diana turned the knob and unlocked the door, slowly opening it to see Audrey standing there dressed in a robe and slippers.

"Oh, it's you," She said, sounding sheepish. She should now that we know Diana was right the whole time.

"Audrey, we need your help," Diana said.

"I can't even help myself," Audrey said. "Vandal took over my father's throne."

"You're the Queen. You have to take command of the situation," Diana sternly told her. I guess tough love was what we were going to use here.

"How?" Audrey asked.

"You can start by taking us to the control room," Bats added.

Audrey was silent for a minute before she nodded and led us down a separate hallway. "It's this way," She muttered.

We followed her around the corridors before coming to a big metal door with a guard at the entrance. Bats silently crept around and threw netting at the guard, causing him to fall with a grunt. We walked up to the door once the guard was knocked out.

"He's inside," Audrey said.

"Stay here," Bas told her. I followed Bats towards the door when Diana spoke with Audrey. Audrey backed up as the three of us stood in front of the door.

"Are we ready?" I asked, elongating my staff.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Diana said, before kicking down the door. Gunfire erupted and we all dodged it, going or separate ways. I threw a block of ice at the closest guard, knocking the gun out of his hand before landing a punch to him, effectively knocking him out. Another guard was behind him and I managed to actually knock the gun from his hand. He threw a punch at me that I dodged before hitting him with my staff. He backed up but then came charging at me again. I planted my spear on the ground and used it to propel myself around in order to land a kick at his face. He was immediately knocked out.

Diana and Bats had already knocked out the other guards, so now there was only the sonic blast man and Savage left.

"Apparently you didn't get the message. Let me make it loud and clear," He said before he opened his mouth again and the sonic waves came out. I planted my feet on the ground as the blast hit both of us. It sent me flying backwards but Diana was able to withstand it. I was sent into Bats' chest as Diana manage to punch the man out, silencing him. Seeing that he was close to defeated, Savage ran back towards the other computers.

"Let's go!" I yelled, chasing after him. Bats and I found him at the main launch computer. "Hey, Savage," I yelled. Savage looked up just as Batman hit him with a chair.

"You're in my seat," He said. Sandal was knocked to the ground and I froze his hands and legs go the ground.

"What's the countdown for?" I asked Bats.

"He made a new launch," Bats said as he began typing.

"Can you stop it?" I asked, as Diana walked up behind us.

"No, I couldn't stop it, but I gave it a new destination."

"Where?" Diana asked. Judging by the smirk on his face, I wasn't going to like the answer.

"Right here." He quickly walked over to an emergency intercom system and started speaking in Kasnian.

"He's officially lost his mind," I said to Diana. She only shook her head as Bats walked back over to us.

"I've evacuated the castle, but we need to go. Now." He said, throwing a batarang at the computer, effectively breaking it. Diana grabbed two guards while Bats ran out and grabbed Audrey.

"Am I supposed to get Savage?" I asked Diana. She quickly shook her head before flying out and I followed her.

We followed the rest of the soldiers who sprinted towards the outskirts of the small village and jumped down a hill just as the meteor hit the castle, sending a shockwave across the village. As the dust settled we made sure everyone was alright before standing up.

"Well, that was fun," I muttered, shaking the dust off of my jacket.

"Fun's a work," Bats muttered, letting go of Audrey and looking up at the castle, or rather, where the castle should have been. The meteor had left nothing except some of the thicker walls. Everything else was gone.

The sun had barely started peeking through the clouds by the time the fires were put out. Audrey had wanted to go see what was left of the castle, and Diana went with her, leaving Bruce and I on the outskirts.

"So, when do you go back to Gotham," I asked him.

"Later on today. I have to go to the Watchtower and fill in some reports," He said, kicking a rock with his boot.

"Oh, I might stay up there today since I have guard duty tonight." I said, kicking a rock with my boot now.

"We'll have to get rides from Diana. My jet exploded and my spare is in Gotham." Bats said, sounding a little ticked that he had lost a jet.

"You have a spare?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Of course I do," He said. I laughed and shook my head. It must be nice to be filthy rich. Before I could say anything else, a yell interrupted the silence of the morning. Bats and I looked at each other before sprinting to where Diana and Audrey were. Somehow, Vandal Savage was alive, and was clawing his way out of the ground, broken bones popping back into place.

"You sure can pick 'em," Diana said.

"Seize that thing," Audrey said, and two soldiers grabbed onto Vandal's arms. "I don't know how you survived," Audre said walking up to Savage. "But I promise you will pay for your crimes in full."

"Do your worst, child. I'm immortal. I can't be killed," Savage said.

"We'll see," Audrey said, and for the first time, I realized just how dark she could be. She could have given Bats a run for his money. Audrey walked off as the guards took Savage away, leaving the three of us.

"So Diana…" I trailed off, wanting Bats to ask her for that ride.

"What?" She said, looking at the two of us.

"We uh, need a ride. My jet exploded," Bats said, somehow managing to sound like a child. Diana started chuckling and nodded her head, wanting us to follow her. We were about twenty steps behind her before I spoke.

"You know, we never finished that dance," I said, nudging Bats' arm.

"No, we didn't." Bats said.

"That's fine. I'll count it as an IOU." I smirked, skipping along to walk with Diana, but I swear I could hear Bats chuckling and I knew eventually I would get that dance.


	19. A Better World

Hello everyone! Good news, I am officially done with school, so hopefully you will be seeing updates a lot more frequently than before. I have so many ideas for what I am going to do for the rest of this season, and then for Unlimited. As usual, please leave a review and let me know what you think!

Another day, another fight with Luthor. It seems to be the same old thing. We bust Luthor for having weapons and planning on hurting people with them, he somehow gets away, rebuilds his machines, and does the same thing all over again. And the entire time the public is none the wiser. It got so tiring.

So this time, we had caught Luthor in an empty lab where he was making and stockpiling weapons, and we all decided to put an end to it. Except we didn't expect Luthor to have his bionic suit with him, stun gun and all.

I rolled out of the way as the crate I was hiding behind exploded, sending shards of wood flying all around me. I rolled onto my feet and stood up, glaring at Luthor flying around the warehouse, shooting off light beams like a madman.

"Are you okay Evie?" Flash asked, slowing by a little as he sped past me.

"I'm fine. I'll be better when this is over though," I said, shaking debris out of my hair.

"I know," Flash said, speeding off again. At this point, Superman was fighting Luthor while Diana was trying to get him lassoed in. Luthor was able to push out of Superman's grasp and dodge the lasso, swinging back around towards me again.

I jumped onto some crates, running overtop until I was almost as high as the ceiling, then I jumped off, heading into the general vicinity of Luthor. I made a spear mid-air and threw it at him, soaring through the air and about to land on my feet, when Luthor dodged my spear and grabbed another empty crate and threw it at me. The crate hit me full force and knocked me back, smacking me into the wall.

I hit the wall and slid down with a thud, my legs splayed out in front of me, and held my head in my hands. "How did he even see that?" I muttered. Glancing up again, I saw that everyone was in a fight with Luthor. Shayera, Diana, and Lantern were flying after him, Lantern throwing a blast at a set of pipes, narrowly missing Luthor, and Shayera throwing her mace, but missing as well.

The pipe that Lantern had hit crashed to the ground, landing on Flash, but before I could move, Superman was there, lifting it off of him, and judging by the stern look on his face, was giving him a mini lecture. When they were distracted, Luthor rounded a corner and disappeared. I sprinted after him, seeing him fly down a set of stairs and land. In a second, Bats and Shayera were next to me. Luthor walked up next to a tripod, with a white machine resting on the top of it. He clicked a few buttons and turned it on.

"What is that?" Shayera whispered.

"Breakable I hope," Bats said, taking out a Batarang. Before he could throw it, a blur whizzed by us and knocked Luthor over, taking off some pieces of the machine with him. Luthor hit the floor and Flash slowed down enough for us to see him.

As Luthor hit the floor, Diana had come up behind him and threw her lasso around him, pulling him back a couple feet which caused him to hit the ground pretty hard.

Luthor struggled against the restraints before looking up at Diana. "Watch, I'll be out in days," He said.

"Not with a broken leg you won't," Diana said, taking a step forward.

"That's being pretty generous. I was thinking more along the lines of a broken hip," I said, nudging Luthor's hip with the tip of my boot. He gave me a dirty look before turning his head away from me. Police officers came in and took Luthor away, leaving the rest of us standing in the lab.

Flash ran up behind us and stopped in front of Superman. "Sorry I messed up back there," he said, one of the rare occasions he was ever serious.

"Apology accepted," Superman said, placing his hand on Flash's shoulder. "As long as the damage is fixed," He said, looking around the room at the mess we had left behind.

"Got a sec?" Flash said, before blurring out and cleaning the room up in about ten seconds. Just as he had finished, a crackling sound filled the room and a bright light erupted around J'onn, who took a step forward and turned around. We all gathered around the light though not getting close enough where we would be hurt. The portal opened wider and out stepped…J'onn? Except this wasn't our J'onn, obviously.

This J'onn had a completely different suit on, a full black one with a higher collar and cape, with a red circle across his chest. I glanced around at the League, noticing the shocked looks on everybody's faces, except for Bats and our J'onn. Bats was analyzing everything as usual, and while J'onn was still shocked, he kept his expression neutral.

"Who…Who are you?" Our J'onn asked, staring into his own eyes.

"I'm you." The other one said. Besides the new suit, there was something off about this J'onn. Usually our J'onn gave off comforting vibes, despite his appearance. We all knew we could go to him with any troubles we were having and he would give us advice and help us. This new J'onn certainly did not give off those vibes. He looked around at all of us as if he could see through us. His eyes were cold, and had a look of superiority in them. As if he was better than us.

I slowly shuffled backwards so that I was hidden by some of the other members, but new J'onn could still see me. I ended up standing next to our J'onn since he had taken a few steps back. New J'onn started explaining how dimensions were collapsing, and the technology his dimension had was strong enough to get him through to us.

"Our Batman built this portal to try and find help." New J'onn explained.

"But what can we do?" Lantern asked. The portal was still open, and light was flickering out of it, casting shadows across all of our faces, but since New J'onn was standing with his back towards the portal, his face was in a shadow and it made his orange eyes glow.

"We're not sure yet, but my dimension seems to be at the center of it, and that seems like the best place to start looking for an answer," New J'onn said.

"Have you read his mind yet?" A deep voice next to me said. I jumped for a second and then realized Bats had come to stand between J'onn and I.

"Martians don't do that to one another," J'onn muttered quietly, as to not interrupt New J'onn.

"Can't, or won't?" Bats said.

"Both."

Bats and I looked back at new J'onn as he finished up his speech. There was silence for a few moments before Superman spoke up.

"So it's agreed then, we go?" He said, looking around at all of us.

"Sure, okay," Flash said.

"Right," Shayera chimed in.

"Hold on, we all didn't agree to this," I said. "I'm not sure I want to go through another portal. Usually it doesn't end well for us." I said.

"What, you think J'onn would lie to us?" Flash asked.

"Not our J'onn," I said, glancing at the New J'onn and noticing he didn't look too happy with me disagreeing. "We don't even know if what he's saying is true."

"C'mon Evie. What could go wrong?" Flash asked.

"I'm in," Diana said, moving to stand in front of me.

"Me too," Lantern agreed. The only other ones who hadn't said anything was J'onn and Bats. I turned to them, hoping either one of them would be a voice of reason.

"J'onn, Batman?" Superman asked. After a moment of pondering, J'onn stepped forward.

"Agreed." He said, standing with the others. Bats didn't say anything, but he stepped forward just the same. Knowing I was outnumbered I let out a sigh of defeat and lightly shook my head.

Nodding his head, New J'onn turned around and stepped through the portal first, followed by the rest of the league, except for J'onn, Bats and myself. J'onn went through next, leaving only Bats and I for a moment.

"Everything will be fine, Eves," He said, turning to face me a little before stepping through the portal, leaving me alone.

"Yeah, that's what we always say," I muttered, before holding my breath and stepping through as well. I have to hand it to this other dimensions Bats, because it was the easiest one for me to walk through. I felt a little bit of pressure before I stepped out of it into a plain white room with the rest of the League.

"Hey, don't you guys believe in doors and windows?" Flash asked. I scanned the room and saw he was right, there were no doors or windows, and the look that had settled onto new J'onn's face was unsettling. My stomach sank as I realized what we had most likely walked into was a trap.

"I'm sorry," New J'onn said before phasing backwards into the wall. Flash ran over towards the wall just as volts of lightning surrounded all of us, electrocuting us all. I immediately dropped to my knees, shaking uncontrollably. The pain was some of the worst I had ever felt. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and I slowly turned my head through the pain.

Shayera was kneeling, lifting her mace above her head, conducting some of the electricity away from us and using it to power her mace. She shakily stood up and walked over to the wall, hitting it hard enough to put a dent in it. She hit it three more times before a chunk of the wall came out, but before she could step out she was thrown backwards by a bolt of green light. That must have been this dimensions Green Lantern.

Shayera laid on the ground, not moving. I saw a flutter of white in my peripheral vision, but then I let the pain take over and plunge me into darkness.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I don't know how long I had been out, but when I came to, I had a headache the size of the sun and a ringing in my ears. I blinked my eyes a few times to adjust to the bright light before looking around. I was inside a box, with a glass front, and I was hanging from a metal X, my wrists bound to the top and my ankles to the bottom. I had monitoring wires attached to my chest that led to a computer source outside of the glass.

I struggled, but the cuffs were on too tight. I couldn't move my hands or my arms. That's when I started to notice how hot it was in here. I was sweating just sitting here. I noticed the orange light around me and assumed it was from a heat lamp of sorts. I tried to cool down my temperature, but just as I started to make a difference, there was a shock that went through my cuffs, causing my powers to zap out.

"I wouldn't do that. The sensors measure you're body temperature. If you try to cool it off, you'll get a shock."

I looked outside of my glass to see Batman, but it wasn't my Batman, it must be this dimension's version. His suit was different. Instead of having the black bat logo on his chest, his was silver, and his cowl and cape were a grey instead of a black.

"Let me out of here," I growled, pissed that I had been right in not trusting what was going on in the first place, and nobody listened to me. Yet again.

"I can't do that," new Batman said. He kept looking at the monitor attached to my door, but his eyes weren't moving. It was like he was staying here for a reason. I figured if he was going to hang around, I was going to ask some questions.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"In separate cells, but in the area," he said. Glancing up at me before looking back down at the computer.

"I take it your dimension isn't crumbling then. Care to explain that?" I asked. A small smirk formed on this Bats' face, but he didn't say anything right away.

"The others wouldn't be happy if they knew I was even talking to you," he said.

"Since when do you care about what others think?" I countered. His smirk grew a little bit before he turned serious again.

"You'll be safe. I promise," He said, turning to walk away from me.

"Bats, please!" I yelled, and something flashed across his eyes as he looked at me. Then his face was wiped blank and he walked away. A few moments later I could hear the deep baritone of Batman, but whether it was my Batman or this dimensions Batman, I couldn't tell. I also couldn't tell who he was talking to. I figured I would save my energy and figure out a way to get out of here instead of yelling and screaming.

I have no idea how much time had passed but I heard a commotion outside of my cell. I looked up and saw that this dimensions Batman was sprinting down the stairs, and disappeared inside a cell to my left. It was silent for a few minutes and that's when I started to get nervous. "Hey! Bats!" I yelled, trying to get someone's attention. A red blur ran in front of me and stopped in front of my door.

"Hey there sweet stuff, trying to go my way?" Flash asked, a smirk on his face.

"I'm trying. Get me out of here Flash," I said. He punched in a few numbers on the keypad and the door slid open. "How'd you know the combination?" I asked as he unlocked my hands.

"Bats told me," He said, wrenching open the metal around my waist and ankles and I fell to the floor. He steadied me as I stood up.

"Our Bats or theirs?"

"A little of both honestly," Flash said, walking me out of the cell. In the row next to me was the rest of the league, except for Shayera. Bats was helping the rest out of their cells. He glanced over at me, gave me a quick once over, and went back to what he was doing.

The rest of us gathered around the cells as we released everyone. Shayera wasn't with us, but with the hit she took, she probably needed medical treatment.

The last one we let out was Superman, and I had never seen him look so pissed off before. He ripped the metal away from him and strode out of his cell. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to kick some serious-" he was cut off as Flash ran in front of him.

"You're going to have to wait on that. They've got Hawkgirl in a hospital somewhere." Flash said, crossing his arms.

"You need to find out which one she's in and get there before they hear about this," Bats said, moving towards me and grabbing my arm.

"This is your city," Superman said, looking at both of us. "You know the hospitals better than we do."

Batman turned to face him again. "We've got a portal to find." I glanced up at him, noticing how he had thrown me into the mix as well.

"I can go with you," J'onn said.

"Sorry," Batman said, turning away from the group. "We have to do this alone." He took a few steps and got out a grappling hook. He shot it at a railing and grabbed my arm and we flew up and into another hallway, away from the rest of the League.

We were silent for a few minutes as we maneuvered through the hallways of the building. "If our Shayera is considered a bad guy in this dimension, they probably are keeping her with the rest of the bad guys, aren't they?" I wondered out loud.

"Probably," Bats said, turning a corner. "They would need the right equipment and security to hold her. And there's only one place that has that here."

"Arkham," We both said at the same time.

"How do you think she's handling Arkham? Even our worst criminals can't handle it most of the time," I asked Bats. He paused for a minute before answering.

"I'm sure she's fine. It's Shayera. I'm sure she has handled much worse."

I nodded and squinted as we stepped outside into the daylight. "Alright. Next question. Where are we going, and why am I going with you?"

"That was two questions," He said, looking around, figuring out where we were. I rolled my eyes and waited for my response. "I was serious about finding this portal. We have to make sure we'll be able to go back to our dimension. I figured the person who built it would have the plans."

"But that person is you," I said. Bats was silent. "Is that a good idea? You confronting yourself?"

"We don't really have any other options, do we? I'll know him better than anyone else," He countered.

I sighed, realizing he was right. "Okay, and what about me? What am I doing here?"

This time Bats sighed, and turned towards me. "You don't seem to be in the picture. Which means something happened to you. I want to find out what."

"Why?"

Another sigh. "There are a few reasons. One, you're disappearance, along with this Flash being dead, could have had an effect in the League turning out the way they did. Two, I think you should know what happened to you. And three," He paused, looking everywhere else but me, "you would probably be able to get a more…emotional response out of him."

I quirked an eyebrow at that. "Oh yeah? Why is that?" I said, crossing my arms and smirking.

Bats' cheeks turned red and he turned away without answering. "We need to go this way."

I smiled but followed behind him, knowing that he wasn't going to give up why I would be able to produce an emotional response out of him. We quietly maneuvered our way through the city until we reached the outskirts.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked as we turned towards a long driveway.

Bats looked over his shoulder and gave me a strange look. "You seriously don't know?" I shook my head and he let out a small huff. "We're going home."

I was confused until we came over top of a hill and I saw the outline of what could only be Wayne Manor. "Oh," I muttered, feeling stupid for not realizing it before. "Wait, the Batcave is under your house?" I had never put two and two together, but I guess Bats had to work out of somewhere, and it had to be close enough where he could have access to it all of the time.

"If we go this way, there's an entrance. That way we won't have to go through the house." He said, turning into a small stretch of wood. We walked for about a quarter of a mile before coming upon a pile of rocks. Looking down, I realized it was an abandoned well that had dried up years ago.

"This is the entrance to the Batcave?" I asked.

Bats just looked at me and rolled his eyes. "It's one of the hidden ones. I have a few entrances, but this is the least guarded." He pushed some stones out of the way and stood over top of the hole. "Ready?" He asked. I nodded and stepped closer. He tucked me into his side, and we jumped down, falling for a few seconds before landing on the rocky ground. A tunnel ran parallel to the well and we started walking through it, eventually coming to an alcove.

I looked over the edge and saw that the Batcave…was an actual cave. Stalagmites and stalactites were formed everywhere, water dripping down around corners. A giant computer sat in the middle of the room, up against the wall with a singular chair sitting in front of it. There were knickknacks littered around from, what I would assume, were previous battles. I glanced over at Bats and he was looking around too, probably checking to see if his counterpart was in the room. After seeing if the coast was clear, he dropped down and quietly landed on the floor, and I followed him, landing just as quietly.

Behind us was a display case, where there were four separate costumes; an old bat costume, a smaller one for a Robin, a Batgirl, and one for Nightwing. I knew that Bruce had allowed his adopted children to be a part of the vigilante squad, but I had never met any of them. This was the closest I had ever gotten, and with good reason too. If Bruce was picky about trusting the League with his Bat identity, he certainly was going to be protective over his children.

As I was wandering around looking at everything, I noticed Bats wasn't by my side anymore. He had gone across the cave, inspecting what I would assume to be the portal. It was still open, the swirling colors and flashing lights illuminating the corner of the cave. I walked over to him and saw him looking at the control panel. While he was inspecting it, I hung back a little bit, not wanting to get too close and break his concentration.

Suddenly, over the noise the portal was making, I heard a quiet shift in stones and the whir of something coming our way. I immediately erected a shield behind us, and a second later, a Batarang hit the ice, making a loud crack noise. We both turned around and saw new Batman come out of nowhere, heading straight for my Bats.

I ducked out of the way, but Bats wasn't as lucky. He got a hit right to the face, which laid him out while other Bats jumped up on him. Not staying on the ground long, my Bats countered his attack by vaulting other Batman around, giving him time to stand up. They scrapped with each other before other Bats was able to land a direct hit, causing my Bats to fall off the edge of a cliff.

"Bats!" I yelled, rushing over to the edge. I let out a relieved breath. He had landed on a flattened out stalagmite, instead of falling down the chasm.

"I knew you'd come here," Other Bats said, peering over the edge of the cliff. "Just like I know you're going to…do that," and he was cut off as my Bats pulling out a grappling hook, hooking it onto a stalactite and disappearing into the shadows.

"This is ridiculous," I huffed, crossing my arms and glaring at this new Batman. He just gave me a look and walked around, peering up into the darkness.

"What are you hiding for?" He asked.

"I do my best work in the dark," The same voice answered, but this time it was echoing from the ceilings. This was going to get annoying, really fast.

"I used to think that too. But what have you ever accomplished from that? Besides scaring a few punks half to death and putting a few more in jail." Other Bats asked. I followed him around, also looking up to see if I could catch a glimpse of my Bats between the rock formations.

"It all adds up," He answered.

"Not fast enough. If you really want to make a difference, if you want to change the system instead of just patching it you can't be subtle. You have to step into the sunlight, take over, like we did."

I scoffed, wondering if he realized how crazy he sounded. Our job was to protect people, not invoke fear in them.

"Think about it, a world where there's no crime, no victims, no pain." Other Bats continued.

"And no choice."

Other bats quietly climbed up a rock formation, and slipping onto a flat ledge. Normally I would warn Bats, but honestly, this seemed like a much needed therapy session. Maybe they both needed to hit each other and they would feel better about some things. I'll only step in if it gets too serious.

There was a commotion coming from the ledge and other Bats jumped down, holding onto his arm. Even from here, I could see a tear in his suit.

"Who elected you anyway?" My Bats said, starting to sound angry.

"Who elected you?" Other Bats countered.

"Are you two done yet?" I piped in, while sitting down on a rock and crossed my legs.

"Stay out of this!" They both yelled, their voices echoing through the cave. I scoffed and crossed my arms, figuring they would tire each other out eventually.

"The problem with democracy is, it doesn't keep you very safe," Other Bats said.

"It has other virtues," My Bats interrupted. "It seems you've forgotten them."

"I didn't forget! I just chose peace and security instead."

"You grabbed power!" Bats yelled, and he sounded genuinely mad. I stood up, ready to intervene because if this kept going on much longer, I would have to step in to keep them from killing each other.

"And with that power, we made a world where no 8 year old boy will ever lose his parents because of some punk with a gun." As he was saying this, I saw my Bats stand up, Batarang in hand ready to throw it. But as he heard the words, his face crumpled into sadness, and I knew the fight was over. He stood up straight, and let the Batarang fall out of his hands, and slide down the rocks. Other Bats whipped around, ready to strike, but after seeing that he had surrendered, he relaxed a little.

"You win." He took a few steps down before coming to a stop on the flat ground. He walked over to me, looking me over. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Are you?" I asked, asking about his physical and emotional well-being, without putting it into so many words. He turned around without saying anything, and I knew this conversation was going to weigh on him later on. I looked over at the other Batman and caught him staring at us, a strange look on his face, until he noticed me staring and turned around and headed over to the computer. We followed him and stood there in silence, the air around us tense.

A muted beeping started going off and we all looked at the computer. New Bats pushed a button on the control board and a video popped up, of our Superman punching another Superman, but this one in a black suit with a white cape. "Your friends are tearing up Arkham."

We both turned around to look at my Bats, but he was already walking over towards the Batmobile that was parked behind us. "Then shouldn't we stop them?" I looked over at new Bats and he looked over at me. I shrugged and followed my Bats. I heard footsteps behind me and knew other Batman was following behind me.

When I got to the car, my Bats already had the door open for me, and I climbed into the back seat. "Thanks," I murmured. He left the door open, but slid into the driver seat. Other Bats didn't look too happy to be sitting in the passenger seat of his own car, but he didn't say anything.

With a squealing of the tires, we sped out of the cave and into the daylight once again. From there we followed the twisting road until we were back in the city. Or, what I thought was our city. Looking around the streets, it looked nothing like our Gotham. Apparently Bats had followed the same trail of thought as I had.

"I can't believe this is Gotham. Where is all the litter?"

"If you want people to respect the big laws, you have to enforce the smaller ones." Other Bats said. The light ahead of us had turned yellow, and the car slowed to a stop. "What are you doing?"

"The small laws, remember?" Bats said, and I chuckled. I don't think Bats had ever stopped at a red light, let alone actually slow down for a yellow one. If there was one thing I hated about him, it was his reckless driving.

The one window was down, and now that the engine had stopped, we could hear what was going on outside. "I'm not paying for this," A raised voice said. We all looked over and saw a man sitting outside at a café, complaining about the bill and the food of the restaurant. He wasn't yelling, but he wasn't exactly being quiet either. Within 20 seconds, a grey van marked "police" drove up and stopped in front of him, a pair of handcuffs at the ready. Once the man realized he was being placed in handcuffs, he started retracting his statements, sounding a little scared. He was placed in the back of the van and they drove away. The entire ordeal took place before our traffic light had even changed.

The other customers at the café had stopped what they were doing to observe, but upon seeing us sitting there, they quickly returned to their food, quieter than before. My heart sank as I realized just how bad this world was. People should be allowed to voice their opinions without having to be locked up.

"They'd love it here, don't you think?" My Bats asked.

"Who?"

"Mom and Dad. They'd be so proud of you." He said, glaring over at his counterpart. My mouth hung open a little in shock. Talk about a low blow.

After a beat of silence, Other Bat turned and faced the road again. "Just drive." The light turned green and we continued on. Figuring I would break up the tense atmosphere, I let out a small cough.

"Are we going to ignore the elephant in the car?" I asked. They both looked back at me and didn't say anything. "Where is this dimensions Evie?" My Bat glanced at the other one, quietly asking him the same thing.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." The other one muttered.

I rolled my eyes. "If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked."

The two Bats just looked at each other, having a silent conversation as to whether or not he should tell the story. My Bats must have won because the other one let out a sigh and sank deeper into his seat.

"I guess it all started when I joined the League. I had always been a solo act, never one for being a team player. But then when I met her, she found ways to break down most of my walls. And it worried me at first. I let her in little by little, but I still kept her at arm's length. I didn't want her to get caught in my messes," He said, pain coming through the longer he spoke. "We had been through pretty much everything together, including Flash's death. That hurt her, and when she was looking for comfort, I found excuses to push her further away. It made me realize that at any given time I could lose her. I figured that the further away she was, the less it would hurt." He looked between the both of us and continued.

"She was against the whole Justice Lord idea. She was appalled over what Superman had done to Luthor. She thought we should be the protectors, not the rulers. So she distanced herself from us too. It got to the point where we weren't even speaking. Until one night. She went out on a patrol on her own. She was in over her head, but she was too stubborn to call for back up at first. I guess she came to her senses and realized she needed help. She called me, but at that point all I could hear was her screaming. That's when Joker got to her." He closed his eyes and a pained expression crossed his face. My Bats hadn't moved, except I noticed his grip on the steering wheel had tightened considerably. I felt myself paling, but I needed to hear the end of this.

"He had taken her before I could get to her. There wasn't a trace of them anywhere in the city. It was a few days before I got wind of where Joker was hiding out. By the time I got there…it looked like it was too late. The damage he did, I had never seen anything like it." He paused, and the weight of the air had settled over all of us. "I rushed her to a hospital, and they started to try and fix her. It was weeks before she was physically in the clear. But mentally…" he trailed off.

It was silent for a few minutes. "What happened next?" I whispered. He shook his head, not wanting to go on, but eventually started talking again. I wondered when the last time was he had gotten all of this out.

"She wasn't all there mentally, and after what Joker put her through, it wasn't really a surprise. She was depressed, like the life in her was just gone. And when she did feel things, she would go into fits of rage or sorrow, and then she would lose control of her powers. The rest of the League tried to help, but there was nothing they could do either. I tried everything, but they said she was too far gone. We tried excluding her from missions, forcing her to stay in the Watch Tower, but that didn't go over well with her. She hated being left alone.

"So we brought her with us, told her she was the back-up. We were on a mission and I tried to get her to stay behind, but she wouldn't listen. One of the men we were fighting had gotten too close to me. She went crazy. Lost control and froze him, except when she blasted him, he fell off the edge of the building, five stories down. He shattered on impact." I closed my eyes, trying to fight off the bile that was coming up. Behind my eyes I could see myself, except a deranged version of me, going crazy, shooting off ice blasts and hurting everybody around her.

"That was the last straw for the League. They couldn't have a deranged Justice Lord ruling over the people, so they took her without me knowing and locked her away. They said she was a danger to herself and to us."

"They locked her in Arkham?" My Bats spoke for the first time. His voice was quiet, and almost seemed shaky.

"No. They knew I would go to her, so they put her a bit further out of my reach," He paused. "She's locked in a facility in Blüdhaven. I don't have access. And even if I could break in, I'm not sure I can face it. All this because I pushed her away."

He trailed off after that, and I knew that trying to get more out of him would break him. I leaned forward and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, not saying anything. Honestly, I didn't know what to say, and I don't think there would be anything to say that would be help him. This wasn't something I could fix in a car ride. He didn't say anything, and let me rest my hand on him, which was saying something.

The car ride was quiet for a few more minutes, as we pulled up to Arkham. I noticed the building was different, it wasn't crumbling anymore. As if it was actually being taken care of. We also noticed the heavy police presence outside, no doubt for our friends inside. Bats parked around the back of the building and out of sight. "Stay here," New Bats said, and quickly left the car. It was silent for a moment and I climbed into the passenger seat, still in a daze after the information that had been dumped on us.

"Are you okay?"

I tried to nod, but it felt like my head was too heavy to move. I just stared out of the front window, not making a sound. Bats shifted towards me and grabbed my hand. "Eves?"

I finally looked at him, tears building up in my eyes. "They locked her away. Left her to rot," I whispered. Bats frowned and held my hand tighter.

"He'll fix this," He said, rubbing soothing circles on the back of my hand.

"How do you know?" I asked, taking my other hand and rubbing my cheek where a tear had fallen.

"Because I know him." He simply replied. "He needs to come to terms with some things, but he'll go back for her. He always will." I heard the double meaning of that last sentence and let out a quiet chuckle.

"Promise me you won't lock me away?" I asked, "Even if I do go insane?"

He gave me a small smile and wiped my other cheek with the hand that still grasped mine. "I promise." And I knew he would keep that promise. Movement caught my eye and I looked up to see the League following behind the new Batman, Lantern carrying an unconscious Shayera in his arms. I sniffed and wiped my face, still holding onto Bats' hand. He didn't let go until the last second, when New Bats slid into the backseat, but I had a feeling he had seen our hands.

"We're going back to the cave." Was all he said. The ride was quiet as I looked out the window, but my mind in a completely different place. I was wondering about the girl in the next city over. Was she mad at Bruce? Or would she understand? And what exactly had Joker done to her to ruin her psyche? And what were the chances of this happening to me? I was pulled out of my thoughts by the daylight disappearing and the darkness of the cave settling over us. We drove down the ramp and parked the car and all stepped out. The rest of the League was following behind us.

We all gathered around this dimensions' Bats as he typed into his computer. The others were exchanging murmurs of what happened once we separated. Eventually, Flash walked over to talk to the Batman at the computer and I branched out to look over the chasm. There was a slight breeze that blew my hair out of my face and I could feel the water rushing far below me. I watched as some of the bats who had found a home in this cave fluttered through the air, making random formations as they did.

"So without your flash, the Justice Lords went rogue?" Flash's voice cut through the silence.

"It wasn't quite that simple," Other Bats said.

"Well hey," Flash said, smirking, "if he was the conscience of your group then that means I must be-"

"C'mon Jiminy," Lantern interrupted. I looked and saw the rest of the League was surrounding the portal, preparing to step through it. After checking to make sure the coordinates were right, Lantern flew through first, followed by Diana, J'onn, Superman, and then Flash. The only ones left behind now were myself, and the two Batmans. My Bats had already climbed the stairs, while the other one hung back. I stood between the two of them, feeling awkward without saying goodbye, but was it really a goodbye?

I turned towards this dimensions Batman and looked at him, probably the only time I had looked at him properly this entire time. Even though he had the cowl on, his eyes looked so tired. He didn't have the easy smirk that my Batman would have. He had more frown lines than my Batman too. Overall, he looked miserable. Before I could tell my feet not to, they were already marching over to him. He furrowed his brow, but made no other move. That was, until I tackled him into a hug. He took a step back to absorb the force that I had thrown into the hug, and moments later his arms wrapped around me.

We stayed like that for a few seconds until we let go, but I kept my hands on his forearms. "You need to go get her Bruce. She'll forgive you." I whispered. "If there's anyone on this planet resourceful enough to help fix her it's you." Doubt flashed across his eyes, and I squeezed his arm. "Trust me." I said. His eyes softened and he nodded, and I knew I had gotten through to some part of him. I smiled and slowly let go and turned away, back towards my Batman. I gave him a smile and nodded my head towards the portal before walking back through.

The two Batmans' watched as the dark haired girl disappeared through the portal.

"She's right," her Batman said. "You need to save her."

"It won't be that easy," the other said.

The first one let out a chuckle. "Most things with her aren't." The other one nodded in agreement.

"I remember when she was like that. Optimistic, warm, incredibly strong willed," He said, stepping closer to him, "You already know how you feel about her. Even if you can't say it, everything gives it away. The looks you give her when she isn't looking, the hand holding, only trusting her to help you on missions. Don't make my mistakes. Make sure she knows everything."

It was silent between them for a few seconds before first Batman nodded. "Thank you."

The other one snorted, "I should be thanking you, I suppose." He held out his hand for the other one to shake, and he did. After the exchange was over, Batman walked towards the portal and stepped through, leaving the other one alone with his thoughts.

Once I got through the portal I saw that it had taken us back to our dimension and we stepped out of the alley.

"They're as strong as we are, and just as smart. And they're willing to kill," Batman said.

"What are you saying?" Superman asked, an edge to his voice. "That we have to be willing to kill too? I won't cross that line."

"How else can we stop them?" He countered.

"You're the smart one, you figure it out."

Bats glared at him, "We can't do it. Not unless we cross some kind of line."

Superman pondered this, before he had a look of realization. "I have an idea. Who's one of the only people who could really stand a chance against beating us? Who has access to high grade weapons?" My eyes widened as I realized who he was talking about.

"You want to use Luthor to help us?" I questioned. "You don't think he'd stab us in the back?"

"Not if we give him the right deal," Superman said. The rest of us just looked at him in shock. "Look, he has weapons that could seriously hurt us, and if they can hurt us, then they can hurt them. Batman is right, we can't defeat them ourselves."

We all kind of glanced around at each other before realizing that he was right. "Alright, so what's the plan?" Flash said.

"We trap them like they trapped us. Lure them here saying Luthor escaped, hit them with a shock, and then restrain them. Then we'll send them back to their own dimension." Superman continued. It was a loosely formed plan, but it could work.

"Someone's going to have to talk to Luthor. Make sure he's willing to help," I said, putting a hand on my hip.

"I can take care of that," Superman said. I nodded.

"The rest of will lay the trap for them," Bats said. We broke off to each get the individual materials that we would need. We headed towards the Supermax prison that Luthor was being held in, and spoke with the warden. We didn't really give him a choice in the matter, we basically told him to clear out a wing of the prison for us. Once a cell was clear, we got to work, running wires and the rest of the materials through the room so we could give them a shock.

"Are we initially going to let Luthor be here?" I asked.

"No, I'll be in there first," J'onn said. I turned around and watched as he changed into an exact replica of Luthor, and then back into himself. I nodded and stepped outside as Batman tested the electricity levels.

"It won't hold them long, but it'll stop them for bit."

Superman radioed us saying Luthor was going to go along with it, saying something about a free chance to hit Superman. He said he would meet us once we were ready for Luthor. The rest of us gathered around the control board once we made sure everything was working.

"Are we ready?" Lantern asked. We all nodded our heads, and a moment later Bats hit a button, tripping the alarm in Luthor's cell.

"I programed it so that it says he took a hostage as well. J'onn, you should get ready." Bats said. J'onn nodded and flew up to the door before phasing through it. It only took a few minutes before we heard a loud noise coming from the cell.

A few seconds later, J'onn phased through the wall and Batman immediately started the electricity. It was all quiet for a few seconds until more banging started to sound. Then the door was knocked off its hinges and Justice Lord Hawkgirl stood there, holding her mace. Lantern was directly below her, pointing his ring at her, but he was hesitating.

"Do it!" Bats yelled at him, and it shook Lantern out of his daze. He shot a blast at Hawkgirl but she was able to dodge it in time. In return, she through her mace at the control board, shattering it as Bats and I jumped back. From there, the fight was on.

Lantern was able to clip one of Hawkgirls' wings, causing her to crash into a wall. As she slowly sat up, the rest of the Justice Lords stepped out of the cell. The first one was J'onn, who immediately changed into a terrifying snake-like creature. Our J'onn immediately turned into the exact same creature and they began fighting each other, eventually shooting through the ceiling.

At this point, Bats and I had only been watching the fight, we didn't have anybody to fight ourselves since our counterparts weren't there. We both rolled out of the way of the falling ceiling pieces, and watched as everybody battled themselves. I focused on Flash who decided to try and take on Superman by himself. He started throwing rocks at the speed of bullets, but once he ran out, it looked like he didn't have a plan. Once punches started swinging though Flash was able to dodge them, and taunt Superman. Eventually he was able to get a hold on him, and after running around in a vortex, built up enough energy to throw him through the roof.

I turned around to check on everybody else, but they were off fighting their own battles, including Bats. He had snuck over to Justice Lord Wonder Woman, attempting to sneak up behind her, but she heard him and turned around, grabbed him by the neck and through him. As he was laying on the ground, she picked up a boulder and walked over to him, with every intention of smashing him with it.

"Hey!" I yelled at her, before throwing a ball of ice at her like a baseball. As it travelled, I made it get bigger and heavier until it was the size of a beach ball. The ice hit her straight in the rib cage, and it toppled her over, causing the chunk of rock to land on her. I ran over and grabbed Bats' hand, and yanked him into standing.

"Thanks," He said. I nodded.

"Where are the others?" Besides this Wonder Woman lying on the floor, the room was empty. I caught a glimpse of figures flying over us and realized the battle had moved outside. "C'mon," I said, stepping onto a disc and flying up. A second later I heard a thud as Bats' grappling hook hit something and he soared past me onto the ceiling. We both landed on the roof, and I saw our Superman standing on the roof of the next building with Luthor.

"Let's go," Bats said, already jumping off the roof to head down to the building below. I followed after him, just as Luthor picked up the white machine he had earlier and shot it at Justice Lord Superman. The yellow beam held him in suspension until Luthor shut it off, causing Superman to fall to the ground. Then, Luthor turned the machine to the rest of the Justice Lords, rendering each of them as useless.

"What is it?" I whispered to Bats.

"It looks like a power converter. It can take away the slight power sources that are in each cell of the body." He said, looking at the cannon.

I nodded, a little shocked that Luthor even had something like that. Bats dropped through the ceiling and Superman and I flew down there and stood next to Flash, who was still in the room. Bats placed cuffs on this Superman and stood him up. Behind us, I heard movement, so I slowly turned around, staff in hand, and Superman did the same. Luthor was behind us, pointing the converter at us.

"This would be so sweet," He said. We all just stood there for a moment, preparing to dodge his attack if that is what he decided to do, but he just stood there. "But, a deal is a deal," He said, walking over to Superman and handed him the converter, before walking back out of the room.

"What deal?" Our Lantern asked as he joined us with Justice Lord Lantern cuffed in front of him.

"A full pardon in exchange for his help," Our Superman said. I was in shock over that one, but I kept a mask of indifference on.

But Justice Lord Superman had the same thought process I did. "Everything he does from now on is your fault," He yelled.

"It's a high price, but it's better than the alternative," He countered. The room was silent, and Lantern and Bats walked their prisoners out of the room, leaving just Superman, Flash, and myself.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to change his mind," Superman told Flash.

"Yeah, how?" Flash asked, looking at him.

"Because I felt the same temptations he had," Superman said, walking past us. "They're pretty strong."

"So you're not such a boy scout after all?" Flash joked.

Superman chuckled, "I never even made it to my first merit badge."

I snorted and shook my head. "C'mon boys, we have a building to clean up," and we walked out of the room, Superman only stopping to pick up the American Flag that had fallen over.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Later that night I was curled up in a chair, sipping on a mug of coffee and reading a book that I had gotten a while ago, but hadn't had the chance to read. It was nice, not having to be in a uniform. I was only in leggings and an oversized sweater. Just as I had finished a chapter there was a knock on my door. Confused, I stood up and walked over to my door, unlocked it, and then opened it.

Bruce Wayne stood on my doorstep, dressed in his more casual clothing and wearing a nervous look.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," I replied, a little shocked that he was here.

"Sorry, are you busy?" He asked, glancing around my apartment to make sure nobody else was there.

"Not at all, I was just reading."

"Oh, good," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. I had never seen him look so nervous.

"Bruce, are you okay?" I asked him, concern laced in my voiced, but also a little humor. He looked like a kid who didn't want to tell his mother he broke something.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was wondering if you wanted to go get some food? With me?" He asked, and a light dusting of pink spread across his cheeks.

I smiled, "Are you asking me on a date?" I questioned. His eyes widened and he looked like he was trying to find the right words, but none of them would fit. I laughed a little, watching him flounder but I realized that was mean, and I hadn't answered his question. "I would love to get food with you," I said. "Let me just grab some shoes." I stepped away from the door and walked into my bedroom, grabbing a pair of normal boots, and my purse. I checked my reflection in the mirror making sure I didn't look like a mess, and stepped back into my living room. Bruce was still hovering by the door, waiting. "Alright, let's go," I said, taking my keys and locking my front door.

We walked down the hallway to the steps in total silence, but it wasn't awkward. We had gotten pretty good over the years at sitting in comfortable silences. "So, what brought this on?" I asked him.

He held the front door of my building open for me before answering. "I was just thinking about it. We rarely spend time with each other outside of League business, why shouldn't we hang out outside of work?" I nodded, knowing that the conversation with the other Batman had spurred this. And honestly, the other Bats was right. I was tired of him keeping me at a distance. Granted, I was the closest to him out of everybody in the League, but there is still so much I don't know about him. We never sit and just talk, it's always about League business. At least now it would give us the excuse to have a non-work related conversation.

We walked up to his car, one of his very, very, fast cars.

"Bruce, I love spending time with you, but not if you're going to drive this thing like you drive everything else of yours," I said, giving him a fake glare. He shot me a grin before opening the car door for me and I slid in. He walked around the front and slid into the driver seat. "Hey, I mean it," I said.

He only shot me another grin before starting the car and revving its engine. I let out a sigh of defeat. I knew there was no use in arguing with the genius playboy. I just hoped that if he was going to keep taking me out, he would at least let me drive sometime.


	20. Secret Society

Hello everyone! I'm finally back with a new chapter, and I hope to have the next chapter up soon. The next two episodes will be Hereafter and Starcrossed. A lot of things will take place between Bruce and Evie, so stay tuned. Also, I would like to welcome the new followers to this story! It amazes me that people keep finding this story and are reading it even when it takes forever for me to write again. As always, please leave a review or a comment for me, reading those really do make my day!

I woke up to my communicator going off in my bedroom, where I had left it. So much for a night off. I had been pulling shifts in the Watchtower on monitor duty while everyone else was out patrolling around all week, just so I could have a few nights off, but apparently it wasn't in my favor. I got up from the couch where I had fallen asleep and walked over to my nightstand and put the communicator in my ear before answering it.

"Yes?" I answered, knowing that in a few short moments I would be forced to put my uniform on and head out.

"Hey there Ice Queen," Flash said, the wind blowing past his comm, telling me he was running. "Hope you aren't too busy. Lantern called a meeting with everyone, but he wouldn't say what it was about."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Sometimes that man was more mysterious than Batman. "Of course he did. Where are we meeting?" I asked, already slipping off my sweatshirt and changing.

"Building in Metro. Need a lift? I can be there in a few minutes," Flash asked.

"No, I'm okay," I said, adjusting my tights and slipping on my boots. "I'm leaving now."

"Alright then, see you later," Flash said and he ended the call. I checked that my front door was locked and climbed onto the fire escape, making sure no one was around, and made my way to Metro.

It wasn't long before I met up with the rest of the League, as it seemed like they were waiting on me. "What took you so long?" Lantern impatiently asked me.

"Sorry, I had to get dressed and leave from Gotham," I said, shrugging and twirling my staff in between my fingers. I wasn't that worried about it, it didn't seem like it was a huge emergency.

Lantern rolled his eyes, "Try to be quicker next time." I rolled my eyes too but didn't say anything else.

"So, what's the problem?" Superman asked him.

"Us," Lantern added, fairly bluntly. "We're not working together as well as we could."

Flash ran over to his side, "C'mon, we're batting close to a thousand," he said, shrugging it off.

"A lot of that's been luck," Lantern said. "We've taken some pretty bad hits along the way."

I glanced over to Diana as she stepped forward. "What are you suggesting?" She asked, and we all looked over at Lantern.

"Practice," He said, and most of us turned into students who were told they had homework for the weekend. Most of us groaned, except for Bats and Superman.

"It's that, or more of what happened to us tonight," J'onn said, finally speaking.

"What happened to you tonight?" I asked. Lantern sent a glare my way.

"If you were here on time, then you would know." I shrugged and rolled my eyes again, but let the topic fall. If anything, Flash would tell me later. After Lantern said that, we all looked around at each other, not really having any serious issues with it.

"What do we have to lose?" Shay asked.

"Time." Bats said, his arms crossed over his chest. I knew that he was balancing a fairly large caseload. These days he didn't do anything besides vigilante work. I had offered to help him out with a few things, but he said he didn't want me to get involved with his dirty work.

"A little more teamwork wouldn't hurt any of us," Superman said, glancing at Bats, obviously talking about how the man usually liked to work alone.

"Looks like you're outvoted," Lantern said, walking to stand in front of Bats. All Bats did was cross his arms so that his cape covered his body, his usual sign that he wasn't happy, but he didn't protest anymore. "We'll start training tomorrow morning. I know this place out west, it's an abandoned saloon town that already has defensive animatronics built in it. It'll be perfect."

From there, everyone went their separate ways, except for Bats and myself. "I take it you're going to need a ride tomorrow?" He asked.

I nodded, looking out over the city. "If it won't be an issue," I mumbled, feeling a little bad that I always have to ask for rides.

Bats gave a quiet chuckle and turned to look out at the city as well. "For you? It's never an issue," He said, just as quiet as I had. We caught each other's eyes and I gave him the tiniest smile.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" I asked. He shot me a glance that was just filled with confusion, and then my words registered in my own head. It sounded like I was asking him out on a date. "Case wise!" I practically yelled, "you know, do you have any open cases that you might need help with?"

He smirked before looking back at me. "Not anything I can't handle. Just a few organized muggings and petty thefts."

I nodded and turned away, trying to hide the blush that I could feel creeping up my neck. "Well that isn't too bad," I said, dragging my boot across the ground. "So, I'll see you tomorrow morning?" I asked.

"I'll pick you up on your roof. It'll be pretty early," Bats said. "You'll want to get some rest tonight."

I nodded, agreeing with him, "Yeah, I was just about to head back and go to bed."

"Do you want a ride?" He asked, gesturing over to his jet that was parked on the other side of the roof.

I shook my head, already walking towards the edge of the roof. "No, I'll fly back. Hopefully it'll tire me out," I replied as I stepped on a disk. "I'll see you tomorrow though."

Bats nodded and didn't say anything at first. He took a few steps back from the edge of the roof. "Goodnight, Eves."

I smiled and gave a small wave, "Goodnight, Bruce." I slowly started to float away, my black curls drifting into my face. I pushed them back before turning back around and headed home towards Gotham.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The next morning Bats arrived on my rooftop just after the sun rose and he took me to Lantern's training practice. We filled the quiet cabin with small talk about our lives, books that I had read, his involvement in the company, different missions that we had gone on by ourselves. It was nice, actually having time to sit down and talk to him. We had gone a few dates together, but they had never amounted to much. It was still business as usual afterwards.

When we arrived the sun had fully risen above the rocky ridges that surrounded us. Lantern wasn't lying when he said it was an old saloon town. It had all the wooden buildings, no paved roads, only dirt, the town even had a few tumbleweeds. Just as Bats was going to land, an alarm went off on his console. He looked at it, scrolling down a page a little bit before sighing and halting the jet in mid air.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Something just came up with one of my open cases," He said, still reading the report that he had received. "I have to go."

I bit my lip, knowing that Lantern wasn't going to be happy about it, but I shook it off, knowing that this was more important. "Well then go, I'll cover for you." Bats looked at me, silently asking if I was sure. I gave a huff of laughter before waving him off, "Seriously, go. This seems more important than a few hours of training. It'll be fine."

Bats nodded, slowly opening the hatch for me so I could jump out. "Thank you."

I smiled at him. "Of course, just be careful." He nodded and as soon as I was clear he left, flying off back the way he came. I turned around and saw the rest of the League giving me questioning looks. "What?" I asked, "Something came up and he couldn't stay."

"Sure," Lantern scoffed. "The only one who didn't want to do the training in the first place isn't even here." Lantern spun on his heels and walked towards the buildings, muttering the whole way. I just shrugged and followed him. There isn't anything I could do about it.

We got started on training right away, splitting up into different pairs and seeing whose powers worked best together. It was actually pretty fun at first. But as the hot sun beat down on us, we started getting more and more tired, which turned into irritability. We had taken a break for a little bit, but then got right back into it.

Superman walked down the middle of the street by himself, looking around for any hidden dangers. Suddenly a Darkseid animatronic popped out of the ground. Superman quickly took care of it with his heat ray, but the course had already restarted. Another animatronic of Luthor popped up and Superman took care of that one as well, cutting it in half.

A few more had popped up, which were quickly taken care of until a little girl one had popped up. It looked like Superman was about to destroy that one too until J'onn appeared in front of it, telling him to stop.

Superman pulled up just in time, quickly realizing his mistake. The rest of us looked at the scene from the balcony of one of the buildings.

"Not bad," Diana said, crossing her arms and surveying the scene.

"It's not over yet," Lantern said, holding the remote control that operated the whole system. J'onn and Superman were talking, and didn't notice the two robots walking up behind them until they started shooting.

"Behind you!" Shayera said, flying over them with her mace in her hand. She destroyed the first one, and then turned around to fly over the second one. Before she could get to the second one, Superman and J'onn must have seen something that she couldn't because they both called out in warning, but it was too late. She had approached the second one but it exploded before she could hit it. She was thrown backwards, landing on the roof besides us.

She groaned on the ground as Lantern approached her and helped her up. "It was booby trapped," He explained, not sounding too sorry that he could have hurt her.

"How was I supposed to know that?" an exasperated Shayera asked him while rubbing her head.

"Either of your partners could have told you," He said, turning around to look at the approaching J'onn and Superman. "One's psychic and the other has x-ray vision."

"You're right," Shayera said. "Good lesson. Can I go now?"

"Go?" Lantern chuckled, "We're just getting started."

I had to suppress a groan at that. "Could you have picked a hotter place to do this at?" I questioned, fanning my face. "Some of us don't like the heat."

Lantern turned to me, rolling his eyes. "You may as well get used to it. You won't always be able to fight in an atmosphere you want to."

This time I rolled my eyes. This is going to be a long day. The next few exercises were airbourne ones so for the most part, I was able to sit out. I watched as Superman took a few hits from a giant that Lantern had created, before ultimately getting out of his grip and punching him so hard that the form dissipated. Superman, Lantern, Shayera, and Flash were standing in a group once it was over and a few minutes later it looked like they were back to arguing. All day long we had all been bickering with each other and it was really starting to put a damper on the exercises, especially since we were supposed to be working together.

I flew down there just to hear the tail end of the conversation. "They're making a good point," Lantern said, crossing his arms, "You have to trust your partners."

"I do, but the fact is I'm the invulnerable one," Superman exclaimed, sounding extremely defensive. "Every punch I take is a punch they don't have to," he said, gesturing to Shayera and Flash.

And of course, Shayera took offense to it. "Are you saying we can't cut it?"

"That's what it sounds like to me," Flash added. Finally J'onn approached the group and pushed Flash and Superman apart.

"Now hold on," He said, "we're a team."

"We're not all equal," Superman said, one of the rare times he actually sounded angry. "You can't deny that-"

"Everybody knock it off!" Lantern yelled, effectively cutting off Superman. "We're going to keep doing it until we get it right," he said before walking off. Some of us followed while a few lingered behind. I heard muttering behind me but decided not to pay it any mind. Everyone was annoying me today, and I couldn't tell if it was the sun or just the attitudes.

I always hated having conversations like this. I'm not dumb, I know that I'm one of the weaker ones on the team. I'm not invulnerable. I can only take so many hits before I'm down for the count, and I can't lift up buildings. My powers are based on my environment so they wouldn't always work. At least Bats is a genius. I'm nowhere close to being as smart as he is. These conversations always had me worried. What if they all realized this and didn't want me on the team anymore? These thoughts usually hang around in the back of my mind, but today they seemed to be on the forefront of it.

After another hour of training, I decided to take a break in the shade of one of the buildings. It must have been a hundred degrees outside! Was Lantern insane? We all couldn't keep this up much longer. My communicator pushed me out of my thoughts as it went off in my ear. "Batman to the League." I smiled at myself as I heard his voice in my ear. "We have a situation. Clayface escaped with the help of at least Shade. There are probably more helping him. I have the coordinates for where he's heading. I'll send them to you." He finished and then hung up, not leaving much room for arguments.

I stood up and stretched, walking over to the group. Lantern was grumbling about having to stop practice, but I think the rest of us were pretty grateful. Now we got to put into practice a few of things we learned. I stood next to Diana and as we discussed how we would meet up with Bats. We assumed there would be fighting involved, but that it would be best to let Bats in first, and then the rest of us would follow.

After a few minutes of debating and grumbling we piled into Diana's jet and headed to the coordinates that Batman had sent us. On the way, he called us on our comms, telling us to meet up outside of the warehouse doors. Superman would hear the signal, and then the fight would be on. Bats was also kind enough to inform us who he would be going up against this time; Shade, Giganta, Sinestro, Killer Frost, Clayface, and Parasite. It was weird that they would all be working together, but we didn't know what for.

"Get ready," Superman said, flying above us, "Batman just ran into Clayface." I pulled out my staff, ready to get this fight over with. At least it got us out of training. "Lantern, now!" Supes yelled. Lantern ran the door down with his ring to reveal the villains standing around Bats.

We heard the last little bit of what Bats was saying, and the fight immediately started. Diana and Shayera both went to take on Giganta, while Sinestro and Lantern started fighting each other. Out of the corner of my eye Parasite went right for Superman just as Giganta knocked the girls out of the air. I was standing out of the way as Clayface started attacking Bats, and I figured I might as well help him out.

Bats and I both dodged the appendages that Clayface was throwing at us, and Bats threw an electric batarang at him, causing his image to slip. While he was trying to reshift, I started freezing some of the smaller tendrils, trying to make him stay. Clayface continued to fight, but every time I would try and redirect his hits, Bats would be right there, pretty much getting in my way.

"Bats, quit it. I can handle it," I said, losing my concentration and getting thrown to the side. I rolled onto my side to see Frost battling J'onn. Well, if Bats wasn't going to let me fight then I'd go to one instead.

I flew across the room to help J'onn out. Frost was throwing ice spears at him, so I put a blockade up and managed to stop the ice chunks in mid-air. I swept them out of the way before knocking out the ledge made of ice that she was standing on. Since our powers cancelled out it was easier to physically handle her. Before she could do anything with her powers, I lunged at her, knocking her off balance. As she went to the ground she hooked her leg around mine, causing both of us to go to the ground. She was able to roll on top of me and get a few hits in, before I rolled on top of her.

Just as I was going to punch her again, a flash of yellow caught my eye. I glanced up and saw Parasite fighting Superman, but he was able to shoot a laser and graze Bats' arm. Because of my distraction, Frost was able to push me off and encase my hands in ice, using it to fly me across the room.

I flipped in the air and was able to land on my feet, next to where Bats was gripping his arm. I didn't even have a chance to unfreeze my hands before something solid slammed into Bats and I, slamming us into a wall hard enough to leave a dent in the metal. We both landed on the ground, groaning. My head was ringing and Bats hadn't moved since he fell. The good news was, the hit broke the ice around my hands. The bad news...it might have broken everything else as well.

"C'mon!" someone yelled. I was able to look up and through my double vision I saw all the bad guys retreating. I groaned again and laid my head back on my arms.

"You okay, Bats?" I asked. He finally shifted next to me and grunted, which at this point I knew to take, he wasn't perfect, but he wasn't dead either. I slowly got up to my knees and looked around the warehouse. It looked like everyone had gotten their asses kicked. We all were lying in various places.

"It was seven to six, we had the advantage!" Lantern yelled.

"Here he goes again," I muttered, standing up and offering my hand to Bats, who took it and stood next to me after hauling himself off the ground.

"Where'd you go? I was counting on you," Diana said, motioning towards Shayera.

"Lantern was hurt. And I recall you saying you could take her," she countered, sending a glare towards Diana.

"Guys, this isn't the time to fight," I said, rubbing my arm.

"Funny of you to say that, it didn't seem like you were fighting much anyway," Lantern muttered. I turned to him, anger flashing through my eyes.

"I fought Clayface, and Killer Frost. All I saw you do was get beaten by Sinestro. I'm so tired of you being on my case about my fighting skills!"

"You and Frost tussled for a minute. What good was that?" Lantern yelled, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Our powers cancel out. I can't exactly fight her with my powers when she just gets rid of whatever I throw at her anyway!" I yelled, just as exasperated.

"So much for practice makes perfect," Bats snarked. I only sent him a glare, rolling my eyes. Now wasn't the time for his sarcasm.

"I thought we were practicing teamwork, not one guy tells everyone what to do," Flash said.

"Someone has to be in charge, and it couldn't very well be you," Lantern retorted.

"Will you both shut up?" Superman said, dusting himself off as he stood up. "I've had better luck fighting whole armies by myself because I didn't have to worry about anyone else but myself."

We all turned to look at him, and I lightly scoffed. "Then why don't you go back to that?" Shayera asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"You think I haven't considered it?" He said, crossing his arms. As soon as he said that, we all jumped a little in shock, even Bats.

"Guys-" I started but I was cut off by Flash.

"This whole stinking group was your idea and now you don't want to do it anymore?."

It was like there was a moment of clarity in my head and I knew that if we kept this up then we would all say things that we would regret. "Guys seriously, we need to cool off first." I said, but I was just being talked over.

"You men," Diana said, "unless you do it on your own it doesn't count."

"It isn't just the men you stuck up-" Shayera was cut off by J'onn yelling.

"Stop it, stop it right now!" We all turned to look at him and I had a heavy feeling in my stomach. "I arrived here not knowing a soul, and you took me in, and you became my new family. But what's the use of a family if it diminishes us as individuals?"

I could already see where the conversation was heading, and I had to swallow the lump in my throat before trying to speak, "J'onn…"

He didn't hear me, or if he did he ignored me and continued. "I'm saying I survived the loss of one family, and I'll survive this one too." He turned and walked out towards one end of the empty warehouse.

"J'onn, wait," I called but he kept walking. I turned to the others before speaking again, "Guys, please, we don't have to do this."

Everyone just looked at eachother, a little unsure of what to do. A moment later, Bats turned around and started walking out. "Bats!" I yelled, but he didn't even hesitate. Somehow, seeing him walk out hurt me more than J'onn did. It hurt more than me knowing that League may be over.

Bats leaving was the catalyst for the rest of them. One by one they all turned around and went their separate ways, until only Flash and I were left. At least Flash had the decency to look upset about his decision. "I'm sorry, Evie," he said before turning around and leaving.

It was dead quiet in the warehouse as I stood there by myself. "What if I can't survive another loss of a family," I whispered to myself. I sighed and replayed the fight over again in my head. Mentally, I was beating myself up going over things that I could have done differently. Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I walked out of the warehouse myself and flew into the air. I honestly wasn't too sure on what to do.

It had been a long time since I had been on my own. The League had truly become my family in the few years that we had been working together. I was hesitant to even join the League because I never wanted to lose more people that were close to me. Now my worst nightmare had come true, and I wasn't sure how to process it. My chest was heavy, like I just wanted to cry but I couldn't bring myself to. I needed to be strong. People were always going to need help, and League or no League, I was going to help them.

I debated with myself and decided that I would fly back to Gotham and do some patrolling. Maybe look into why Clayface was working with 5 other villains, and why they broke him out in the first place.

I knew that Clayface used to hang around a club in Gotham, so I headed that way, hoping to find something that would help, while also trying to stay away from Bats. After the night we had had, I didn't want to deal with it right now. I know that Bats had never been a team player, but it still hurt to see him walking away. Now that I thought about it, seeing him walk away from the group didn't hurt, that was always expected. It just hurt seeing him walk away from me.

I shook the thoughts from my head again before landing in an alley next to the club. I looked around the corner, seeing the usual line of people trying to get in, but nothing too suspicious. I heard a bottle get knocked down and clatter across the sidewalk. I spun around, not seeing anything at first, but noticing a shadow moving.

"Help!" a woman yelled down the end of the alley. "Please, help me!" I sprinted around the corner and saw two figures, apparently fighting each other. I ran to the end, about to interfere when an alley light turned on and I saw that the figures were actually Giganta and Killer Frost. My eyes widened and I knew I had just run headfirst into a trap.

I immediately threw two ice spears at them, Giganta having to dodge out of the way, but Frost caught it and threw it back. I dodged out of the way, but couldn't move too much due to the narrow alley.

"You heroes are so gullible," Frost smirked before throwing more shards at me. I caught some and let the others shatter against the brick wall. While I was fighting Frost, I didn't notice Giganta get behind me. She grew until she was half the size of the building and grabbed my by the back of the neck. She then threw me up against the wall as hard as she could. I hit the wall, and dropped to the ground, landing on a dumpster.

"Can we kill her yet?" Frost asked, her voice a little too close to my liking.

"You know we can't. Grodd has plans for her." Giganta replied. Grodd? I thought he was braindead. Why would he be leading a band of villains around? "We have to go. They already have Batman. We have to go get the others."

They have Bats? How did he let that happen? I tried sitting up, but my head was still spinning and I slipped on the lid, falling to the ground. I groaned, but knew I couldn't get up. We had really gotten our asses kicked today, and that was the last thought I had before my head throbbed again and my vision went black.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I groggily opened my eyes and was unsure where I was. It looked like the Batcave, but I didn't think Frost or Giganta would bring me there. Looking up, I noticed that my arms were tied up above my head and strapped to cross bars in the holding tube I was in. Clayface walked past me, but didn't spare me a glance. Behind him was the rest of the villains we had just fought hours ago.

Clayface walked past me down a line of containment tubes that looked similar to mine. Next to me was Flash, and he was tied down like how I was. I assumed that the rest of the League had been captured. Great, now we were really in trouble. I looked to my right and saw that J'onn was frozen, but strangely enough I couldn't do anything about the ice. I tried, but it just wouldn't move, and I couldn't feel it. It must have been something with the chamber I was in.

All the talking outside was muffled, but I could hear Clayface say something about his old movies, and Grodd was standing at a computer, not paying attention to what Clayface was saying.

While they were conversing, I tried getting loose from the cuffs so that I could escape, or help the rest of the team escape. The cuffs were on fairly tight, but I could move my hand a little bit. I wriggled it around, trying to find a screw that I could loosen, but the entire cuff was smooth, and there was nothing I could get a hold of. Then I tried the next best thing, freezing the cuffs, but my powers aren't working. I groaned in frustration, which caught the attention of Shade.

He walked over to me, and bent down so he was eye level with me. "Sorry toots, there's no way you're escaping. Grodd made those cuffs especially for you. They block your powers, so you can't freeze anything." He tapped on the glass and I just glared at him. "Don't worry, you'll be out soon, when we kill all of you," He laughed and turned around and walked back to the group.

If these cuffs canceled out my powers, then I was really stuck. There was no way that I could get out by myself. And from what I could see, J'onn and Flash weren't really in better positions either. Hopefully one of the others would be able to do something.

I watched as the group of villains spoke some more before Grodd turned and said something. At first I thought he was talking to us, but he was looking past us, at something behind us. All of a sudden rocks were falling from the ceiling and there was green light flashing.

I must have been wrong, Lantern must not have been captured. The villains scattered as Sinestro and Frost tried sealing the hole that Lantern had left. A flash of green went flying through the air and around a turn towards the mouth of the cave we were in, and the 2 villains followed it. I even thought it was Lantern at first, until the real Lantern came around the corner and ran to the podium that held the controls for our pods.

He had just started typing when Shade started creeping up behind him. Lantern must have sensed him, because he hit him with a blast right as Sinestro flew back and attacked him. None of us noticed Clayface at first, but once Lantern was distracted, Clayface hit him into a wall, knocking him unconscious.

My heart sank and I knew our chances of being rescued really were slim to none now. I relaxed myself as Sinestro and Clayface argued over who should have captured Lantern.

"He's ours," Grodd said, walking up to them. "They all are now. Get him in a pod. It's time we start on our final plan." Sinestro hoisted Lantern in the air, and then out of my eyesight. I huffed and hoped that in this final plan there would be a chance for us to escape.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before Grodd gave the order to load us up. We were all loaded onto a jet and a few minutes later the jet had taken off, taking us to who knows where. This time, I was kept next to Bats. I could feel him watching me, his eyes practically burning a hole in the side of my head, but I didn't want to look at him. Looking at him made it all seem so real, because all I could see was him walking away.

Was I overthinking this? Maybe he just wanted to walk away from the League, but it felt like he was also walking away from me, and whatever this relationship was that we had. We hadn't put any labels on it, and we hadn't necessarily been romantically involved, but it was definitely something more than just a friendship. Did he want to end that? Who knows? Neither one of us like to talk about those things, especially since we both know we may not make it home from a mission one day. Why start something just to have it end so suddenly? We both have had too much of that in our lives. And I didn't know if I could handle it again.

While thinking about all of this, I didn't even notice that we had stopped flying. At some point we had landed, and all the villains were on a raised platform, talking to a crowd based on the echoes we were hearing through the opening of the ship.

All of a sudden a hatch above our tubes opened and the platform that we were on was raised up. I squinted in the change of lighting and looked around. It looked like we were in the Gotham football stadium. I wondered why Grodd would choose such an odd place to do whatever it was he was planning on doing, which I would assume our untimely demise. What really concerned me was the amount of people who were there who could get hurt. Civilian casualties are never fun, and we had never dealt with a potential number this high.

"There they are," Grodd said into his microphone, gesturing to us. "Your heroes, who violate every law of nature by coddling the weak and powerless. We say it's time for a new order. But it can't arise until the old one departs." Grod turned towards Clayface, who was standing below us. "Ready for your closeup Mr. Hagen?"

We all watched as Clayface went for a level on the control panel, but at the last second, he ripped his hand through the box, destroying the machine and causing the force beam around us to dissipate, and our cuffs became undone.

As soon as the cuffs were off of me, I could feel my powers coming back. I dropped to the floor and landed on my feet, looking around at the rest of the League as they were released too. There was visible confusion on the villians face, and I had to admit, on mine as well.

I looked back at Clayface and saw him slowly transform into J'onn. I smiled, realizing what J'onn had done. "The Martian tricked us," Grodd said, turning towards Frost. "You froze the wrong one!"

We all jumped down from the platform and came to stand beside J'onn. Frost used her powers to make the frozen Clayface fall and shatter. As he thawed, the pieces of him congregated together to reform him, and he leapt over to the villians side.

"Grodd has been messing with our minds," Lantern said, flying to hover above us.

"Great, how do we fight it?" Flash asked.

"We get over it, that's how."

"This isn't exactly the show I had in mind," Grodd said, "but in a way, it's going to be even better. Don't forget your training," he said to the rest of them. Giganta grew again, and got ready to attack. It was a tense few seconds until the fight was on.

Shayera led the aerial attack while the rest of us ran towards the villains, and they did the same. I immediately went for shade, ducking out of the way of a ray of darkness, and flipping over his shoulders, pushing him to the ground. While he was still clutching his cane, I froze his hand to the ground, so that he was unable to move it. "Can't do much without that, can you?" I asked.

I turned around and headed the other way, looking to see who would need help. I saw that J'onn and Grodd were fighting, both of them trying to use their mental powers on one another. Just as Grodd had gotten J'onn onto the ground, Frost came up behind him on her own trail of ice and froze J'onn.

"This time I got the right one," She smirked. I immediately made my own disc and flew up to where she was perched on her own ice. I snuck up behind her until I was an arms length from her.

"Hey!" I yelled. She turned around and before she could get her hands up I punched her, directly in the face. She stumbled off the ice and landed on the ground. "That's for earlier," I said, shaking my hand out. I melted her ice down and jumped off, landing nimbly next to the frozen J'onn. I thawed him out and helped him into a kneeling position on the ground. "Brain freeze?" I chuckled.

"Please, no jokes," He said, looking around. "Just get them." I smiled and went back off, looking for an opening. We were evenly matched in this fight, and we needed to do something if we were going to end this soon.

With a ground shattering thud, Diana sent Giganta crashing to the ground and I made myself over to where Batman was fighting Shade. He had somehow gotten his hand free, but his cane was still frozen to the ground. Bats had just landed on the ground and Shade was running at him, about to throw a punch when Superman landed in front of him. Shade's fist hit his chest with a sickening crunch, and he immediately cradled his hand to his chest.

"I knew this wouldn't work!" He yelled, running away. As he was running, I made a patch of ice for him to slip on just as Bats threw a grappling hook around his feet. Shade fell to the ground, and finally admitted defeat.

"I could've-" Bats started to say before being cut off by Superman.

"What?" Superman said, giving him a glare. Bats quickly locked eyes with me and I gave him a pleading look.

After a moment Bats let out a small sigh and turned back to Superman. "Thanks."

At least that's progress on trying to fix our relationships. I smiled and dusted my hands off. "Is that everyone?" I asked.

Before they could answer me, Clayface jumped up behind us, growing taller than all of us and making weapons out of the 6 tendrils that shot out of his body. I immediately started freezing the bottom portion, trying to keep him in place. It worked, but even though his bottom was frozen, it didn't mean that he couldn't move his arms. He threw down a mace and a blade right where Bats and Superman were, but they both leapt out of the way in time.

A blur of red blew by me and started stuffing canisters into Clayface. Flash came to a stop beside me for a second just as Shayera came down and lit the fuses of the canisters with her mace. Flash scooped me up in his arms and ran me across the field. He set me down just as Clayface was blown into the sky in a shower of fireworks, probably ones used for the end of the game.

"That's a wrap,"He said, watching the fireworks.

"Not quite," Shayera said, noticing movement on the opposite side of the field. I turned and saw Grodd running down the length of the field. He stopped as Superman flew in front of him. We all ran over to catch up, and were able to hear part of their conversation from across the field.

"There's still a chance for us you know," Grodd said.

"What are you talking about?" Superman asked, not looking the least bit happy.

"We're the superior ones, you and I," Grodd said, standing on his hind legs. "We should be running the world."

Superman just glared at him. "I don't think so."

"Pity," Grod said, lunging towards Superman. He grabbed a hold of his head, his eyes glowing yellow, using his mental powers on him. "You had your chance. Now you can feel the pain."

I sprinted across the field, trying to get to Superman before any more damage could be done. I slowed down as Superman reached up and flicked Grodd on the nose, which sent him flying back, across the field and through the field goal posts. I stopped running and caught my breath, walking over to Superman. "And it's good," I said, reaching my hand out for him to grab. Supes just gave me a small smile before accepting my hand and I helped him up.

Flash ran over to us, holding up his hand for a high five. "Whoo! Back in business," He said, but stopped after seeing the look on Superman's face, "aren't we?"

The rest of the League had finally walked over to us. "A lot of things were said," Diana said, crossing her arms. I looked down at my boots, knowing she was right. There was a chance that the League may not survive this.

"Yeah, but that was all mind control, we didn't mean it." Flash said.

"We meant every word," J'onn said. That was enough to take the wind out of Flash's sails really quickly.

"So what do we do?" Shay asked. We all had the decency to look guilty of what we had done and said, even Bats. I honestly didn't know how to answer her. What could we do when we all knew we didn't see each other as equals.

"All we can do is say we're sorry, and move on," Lantern said. I slowly nodded, knowing that this was definitely going to be something we would have to move past. The crowd was still cheering us on, and it was almost deafening, but it certainly didn't feel deserved. Sure, we had defeated the bad guys, but we had also hurt each other in the process.

Shayera slowly started walking out of the arena and the rest of us followed suit. As I got to the parking lot, Lantern walked over to me, looking sheepish. "Hey, I'm sorry for always criticizing your fighting style. If you ever need tips, I'd be happy to help. Not that I'm saying you really need it, because you are a strong fighter," He said, backtracking and looking extremely nervous.

I smiled and shook my head. "Don't worry about it G.L, thanks. I'll take you up on that." He smiled and nodded, and the air between us had been cleared a little bit. He turned and walked away, leaving me on my own. Superman and Flash were talking, and so were Diana and Shayera, I'm assuming they were also clearing the air.

I turned around to go home and ran straight into a chest. I bounced back but two hands grabbed my arms before I could fall. "Careful," a gruff voice said. Bats had a miniscule smile on his face as he held onto my arms. "I think we need to talk."

I only nodded as he led me over to his jet. I assumed that he didn't want to talk about whatever it was in front of the others. He lifted me up and sat me in the seat, then jumped in himself and took off. The cabin was filled with an awkward silence as I wasn't sure what to say, and it seemed like Bruce didn't want to say it quite yet.

I looked down at the streets of Gotham, at all the people wandering around, blissfully unaware of all the dangers that we were constantly fighting. A very small part of me wished that I could be a part of that. Sometimes I wondered what my life would have been like if I didn't have powers, if I could have a normal job with a normal family. Those thoughts quickly dissipated as I thought of the League, of the family that I have now, of the man sitting next to me. Sure, we weren't perfect, but perfect is just a setting on the dryer anyway. Who needs that?

I jolted as the jet landed and the hatch opened. Bats jumped out and stood next to me, waiting for me to get down. I undid the harness and slid down the side of the jet, and he caught me, holding me steady. I murmured a quiet thanks and he turned around, and I followed him to the edge of the roof. It took me a moment for me to realize that it was the edge of my building, and he was climbing down the fire escape. I grinned and followed behind him, climbing through my living room window as stealthily as he did. Once I landed I shut my curtains so that no one could look inside. I flipped on the lamp, sending the room into a soft yellow glow, and turned around.

He had already taken off his cowl so instead of the white lenses of Batman I was looking into the exceptionally dark blue eyes of Bruce Wayne. "Hi," He said, giving me a soft smile.

"Hi," I replied, returning the gesture. It was silent for another minute as we both stood there. "You said we needed to talk?"

Bruce cleared his throat before speaking, "Oh, yeah. I thought we needed to talk about what happened earlier in the warehouse." I nodded and waited for him to continue. "I walked away from you."

"You walked away from all of us," I countered, sitting in my chair and pulling my boots off one by one.

"I know. And I shouldn't have. But what's more important is that I specifically walked away from you." I blinked, and just stared at him. I should have known that the world's greatest detective would figure out exactly how I felt without me

even opening my mouth. "I know the League means a lot to you, and I understand how hard it must have been for you to see everyone walk away."

I sighed, and stood up, walking over to stand in front of him as he continued. "I shouldn't have walked away from you, and I'm so sorry."

"Bruce," I whispered, as tears started to well up in my eyes, "I don't want to lose anyone. And I thought that I was going to lose my whole family again and I don't know if I can handle that.." I hadn't realized a tear had fallen until Bruce had stepped forward and wiped it away with his thumb.

"I know," Bruce said, and he kept stroking my cheek. "I don't either, but sometimes it's easier for me to step away before we all get hurt. But you aren't like that. It's easier for me to let go, but you hold on tight and you'll fight for it. That's what makes you so special."

I let out a small chuckle, knowing that he was right. I would do anything to fight for my friends, for my family. "I think you're good at holding on too. You didn't have to come back and help."

"Would I get brownie points if I said that I only came back for you?" he smirked.

I pulled back to look into his eyes again and arched an eyebrow. "No, you wouldn't." He let out a huff of laughter and we both fell into a comfortable silence, still in each others' small embrace. I couldn't look into his eyes anymore so I settled for looking at the bat insignia that ran across his chest. "I don't want to lose you," I whispered, so quiet I wasn't even sure if he heard me.

He gently moved his hand from my cheek to underneath my chin and lifted my head until I was staring back into his eyes, which were brewing with a thousand different emotions. "You won't lose me. I'm not going to walk away again. And you can count on me doing anything to come back to you."

I searched his eyes, not seeing anything but the truth and smiled. "Promise?" I asked, holding up my pinky finger. Surprise flitted across his face, which then settled into amusement.

"Promise," he said as his much larger finger wrapped around my colder one.

"Ok," I whispered. A soft smile drifted onto my face, as well as Bruce's. I dropped my pinky, and he ducked his head down, planting his lips on my forehead in a lingering kiss. The action surprised me, because he had never been this forward with his emotions. My eyes fluttered closed and flashes of a life with him flew past my eyes; us having breakfast together after a night of patrolling, me straightening his tie for him before he walked into an important board meeting, him helping me make dinner, quiet dances in candlelight. It was a life that I had never thought I would have, and now that it seemed so close to me I never wanted to let go.

He had moved to resting his forehead against mine, and we stood there, the only sound being the beating of our hearts. I could feel my blush creeping into my cheeks,and I started to get warm but I never made a move to leave. This moment was what we had been working towards for the handful of years we had known each other.

And then the moment was gone when his communicator went off. Bruce groaned against my forehead and I chuckled. He straightened up and pressed his hand to his ear. "Go ahead, Alfred," he said. I briefly wondered who Alfred was, but figured that if he hadn't told me yet then it was something that he would tell me later. His eyes became unfocused as he listened to what Alfred had to say. "Alright, I'll be right there," and he hung up. He let out a deep breath and looked back at me. "I have to go."

I smiled and nodded, totally understanding that he was a busy man and he had other things to do besides stand in my dimly lit living room. "I know. Do you need any help with anything?" I asked, willing to pull my boots on and go with him.

He quickly shook his head, "No, it's a personal matter. I'll tell you about it later." I nodded and watched him put his cowl back on. "Get some rest, I'm sure you could use it."

I nodded, suppressing a yawn that was fighting its way out of my mouth. "Okay, make sure you get some sleep too. Lord knows you definitely need it." He smiled and nodded, before pulling the curtains back and stepping one foot out of the window. "Goodnight."

He looked back at me, that small smile on his face again, "Goodnight." He hesitated for a second before stepping out of the window, and he was off into the night. I stood there, looking at the now vacant window and letting the butterflies erupt in my stomach and trying to fight the squeal that wanted to be released. I walked over to the window and shut it, before getting into the shower to wash the day off of me. After that I flopped onto my bed, and drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a future that I could only wish to have.


	21. Chapter 21- Hereafter

Chapter 21- Hereafter

Evie’s POV

“Has anyone heard from Superman?” I asked the rest of the League through my comms. “He’s taking his sweet time,” I mumbled looking at the destruction below us. Another band of villains had decided to try and level Metropolis, what a shocker. After our experience the last time super villains joined together, I wasn’t looking forward to this one. The last time had been just a few weeks ago, and we were just now getting back to being friendly with each other. Our fight had really shaken us up, and we all had to talk through some things, but now we were on the same page again, just in time for Livewire, Toyman, Weather Wizard, Kalibak, and Metallo to form together. 

“He said he’d be here, but I don’t know where he was coming from,” Flash said as he was running behind Lantern. 

“Well he better get here soon, look what Toyman just came up with,” I said, as I watched a giant toy robot stand behind a pile of scrap metal. “I’m hanging back until you guys are closer.” I was the first one there, but even I knew that I couldn’t take all of them at once, and it would be foolish to try. The robot opened his hands and shot rubber darts out and a few seconds later, whatever they hit blew up, sending flames and metal everywhere. “I’m going down to start helping civilians,” I said, climbing off the roof that I was standing on and flying down to the road, staying out of sight. A few people were stuck under metal and I helped them escape. Most of them were fine though, and all I had to do was put some water on the fires so they could leave. 

“Good, I’m almost there,” Lantern said, the wind rushing past him as he flew at damn near supersonic speed to get here. Just as Lantern said that, Toyman’s robot turned in the direction that Lantern would be coming from. 

“Lantern, keep an eye on that robot. I think it has its sights set on you.” I warned him, crouching behind a car so that I could still see everything that was going on. 

“Copy that,” Lantern said, just as he flew onto the street. The robot raised its arms and fired the rubber darts at Lantern. Luckily, he was able to get a shield up in time, but it stopped him for a moment. “Watch out for Iron Giant, those darts are no joke,” Lantern informed us. 

“Copy that,” Batman said, “I’m only a few minutes away. Be careful, this is obviously an ambush.” 

“Yeah, but for who?” I asked. We don’t all deal with these villains, usually Superman does. Maybe he should stay out of this fight. 

“I’m going to have a chat with our friends,” J’onn said. He was probably going to phase into the middle of them as a surprise, and I figured he could use some help. 

“I’ll be right behind you,” I said, sliding over the hood of the car and sneaking my way around to where they were all standing. Just as I got to the base of their pile of scrap metal, I heard J’onn interrupt whatever Livewire had been saying. 

“Excellent advice,” J’onn said just as he phased through the ground and stood right behind Livewire. He pushed her back just as Metallo tried to attack him. J’onn phased again, causing Metallo to fly right through him. 

I snuck around to the other side of the pile to where Livewire was standing by herself. “Don’t you guys ever learn?” I asked, my staff extending in my hand. She squeaked, startled by my sudden appearance behind her, but she immediately collected herself and threw an electric charge at me. I dodged out of the way before throwing a wave of water onto her, zapping her back a few feet. 

The wind had just picked up behind me and I had to hold onto a light pole in order to stay on my feet. I could just barely see through the snow storm that Weather Wizard had created. He had some cool powers, but honestly, who could call themselves Weather Wizard with a straight face? 

He used his controller to shoot lightning at Diana, who was trying to get Flash out from underneath a car. She used her silver bracelets to deflect the lightning before using a bolt to hit him, throwing him backwards. The wind immediately died down, but it still left a storm behind. The sky was now covered in black clouds, like the heavens themselves were about to open up. 

“J’onn, Evie, make yourself scarce,” Flash yelled as he ran with Diana’s lasso in his hand. I jumped on a disc and flew above them, just as Flash ran past me. Him and Diana had used the lasso to throw Metallo into the air, where he landed in a building a few blocks down. I took the time to use the snow that Weather Wizard had created and put it over the fires that had started. 

Just as I had finished putting them out, another bout of wind had formed, but this time it had taken the shape of a tornado. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered. The tornado had started picking up cars, trucks, people, literally anything in its path. Lantern and I started flying up together but out of the corner of my eye I saw Diana get thrown back after fighting with Kalibak. I looked into the tornado and saw Lantern taking care of the civilians, so I dropped back to help Diana. She had been tossed into the side of a building and was laying in the rubble, with Kalibak advancing on her. 

I pulled some water that was sitting in a puddle and created a small, thin, stream and whipped across the back of Kalibak’s legs. He stopped walking and slowly turned around and looked at me, with a smirk growing on his face. “I already took down the Amazon. What chance do you have?” 

Typical. I rolled my eyes and sent another ten streams his way, forcing him to dodge them and go after me instead. As he was advancing on me, he picked up his pace so that he was lightly jogging. I walked forward and matched his pace, so that we were both jogging towards each other. Just when I was steps away from him, I dropped down and slid in between his legs, hooking my ankle around his, sending him to the ground. I rolled into a kneeling position as Kalibak shook his head and got to his feet, an angry look in his eyes. He charged at me again, and this time I jumped as high as I could, flipping over his shoulders and daintily landing on the ground. “Are you going to fight me or not?” He roared, looking very pissed off and I just gave a chuckle. 

“Oh, I will. I was just waiting for help,” I said, peering over his shoulder as a shadow morphed behind him. Kalibak turned around just in time to catch Batman’s fist with his face before falling to the ground. “Took you long enough,” I said. Bats walked over Kalibak and stood next to me. 

“You looked like you had it covered, and I had to deal with Weather Wizard” He said, glancing at me and then back to Kalibak who had finally gotten back to his feet. 

“Is that all you got?” Kalibak growled before charging at us. When he was a foot away from both of us, Bats and I grabbed onto his arms and threw our weight at the same time, so that Kalibak went sailing into the air and landed on a news van. 

“Do you have plans for tonight?” I turned and asked Bats while running a hand through my curls. “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a night to relax.” 

“What’d you have in mind?” he asked, watching Kalibak struggle to get back on his feet again. 

“I don’t know. Dinner and a movie? At your place this time. I still haven’t seen the legendary manor,” I smirked seeing his sheepish face. Just as he was going to reply, Kalibak stood up. 

“That was quite impressive, little mortals. If you stand down right now, I’ll let you live to tell the story.” 

I rolled my eyes, and I’m sure Bats did the same, before we both changed into a fighting stance. For what seemed like the millionth time that day he charged at us and we both swept under him and dodged his attack. Kalibak must have come to the realization that he hadn’t put a mark on either one of us because when he turned around he was breathing heavily, and he looked angry. “I just flattened Wonder Woman. You really think you can beat me?” He asked us. 

“We’re not trying to beat you,” Bats said. 

“We’re trying to stall you,” I said, crossing my arms and looking at the blue and red blur going past buildings before it landed behind Kalibak. 

“Stall me? For what?” He asked. Talk about all brawn and no brains. Bats nodded over his shoulder and Kalibak turned around to see Superman standing behind him with his hands on his hips. “Oh no,” Kalibak groaned before he was flying through the air, landing on multiple cars in the middle of the road from the sheer force of Superman’s hit. Thankfully Bats and I had stepped out of the way so we weren’t in his path of destruction. 

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think you could have taken Batman or Aquatica, either,” Superman called after him. 

“Aww, thanks Supes,” I said, giving him a slight punch to his arm. He only shook his head and chuckled before turning to Batman. He was about to say something until we heard a whirring noise behind us. The three of us turned around to see that the chest compartment of Toyman’s robot had opened up to reveal a cannon that was turning on. The end emitted a green light, while green sparks sputtered from it. 

The whirring got louder until the green light shot from the cannon in a ball, and before I could blink, it was coming right towards us. Superman grabbed my arm while grabbing Bats with the other and jumped in the air and hovered, just as the light hit where we were just standing. We all looked down to see that the pavement beneath us had been scooped out in a perfect circle, as if there was nothing there at all. 

“That can’t be a good sign,” I said, looking at the destruction below. There was nothing left, it had literally disintegrated. We heard the machine start again and saw that it was aimed right for us. On the other side of us were civilians who were standing on the street, watching the fight happen. Immediately Bats shot out a grappling hook and swung over to them, while Superman and I flew over there and started to clear them out of the way. 

We had just cleared the last civilian out when the ray came through and created a perfect crater in the street, taking out part of the building as well. If that thing hit a person, there wouldn’t be anything left. Shayera came in and helped us grab more civilians so they didn’t get hit. 

I set the man I was carrying down and did a quick headcount. Diana was still nowhere to be found, so I shot up in the air and looked for her. She was laying in some rubble, still unconscious. “Bats, you’re closest to Diana, can you help her?” I asked through my compiece. “I don’t want her getting hit with whatever ray this is.” 

“I’m on it,” He said and started making his way over to her. I looked up to see Superman dodging the rays that Toyman was shooting at him and I flew up to help. 

“We have to get Toyman away from the civilians,” I said, flying next to Supes as we dodged the ray blasts. 

“I know, that’s what I’m trying to do,” He said, before turning in the air and calling to Toyman, “Give it up, Toyman, you’ll never hit me with that thing.”

Toyman paused for a moment and turned so he was facing sideways. “Maybe not,” he said, moving the robot around so that it was fully turned away from us. “But what about your friends?” he asked. My face paled as I saw him aiming at Diana, and now Bats was there to help her. 

“No no no no no,” I mumbled as Supes and I shared the same terrified expression. As the cannon powered up, everything seemed to move in slow motion. All I could focus on was Bats and Diana laying on the ground, the green glow encompassing them. The ray was shot from the cannon, and Superman and I both shot forward. 

“No!” Superman yelled, heading straight for the ray to try and block everyone else from it, just as I followed behind him. 

“Bats, no!” I yelled, spinning around in mid air, forming a wall of ice to try and shield them from the ray as much as possible. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was his face, eyes wide in horror, reflecting the green light. The last thought that crossed my mind was to pray to whatever God was listening, that he would be okay, that he wouldn’t be too hurt, or sad. I knew I was dying and the only thing that made me feel better about it was the fact that he would continue to live. 

The ray hit me and it felt like I was on fire. I couldn’t move, I don’t even know if I screamed. There was a bright light and then I didn’t feel anything at all. 

Bruce’s POV

She was gone. That’s all my brain could process. One second she was there yelling for me, the next she's screaming as she is engulfed in the ray, and then she's gone. The wall of ice that she had formed crashed to the ground, the pieces sparkling like broken glass as the green light dimmed and faded to nothing. She’s gone. 

A rumble of thunder shook the air as rain fell from the dark clouds that had been looming since the fight started, as if the sky itself was mourning. I surveyed the scene around us. The rest of the League was scattered around in various positions, but they all had the same shocked look on their faces, like they couldn’t process what just happened. 

Superman and Evie were gone, just like that. 

Diana and I both stood up together, and I quickly caught the look of pure rage on her face before she wrenched herself out of my grasp and set her sights on Toyman, who was celebrating his victory. 

“Superman go bye-bye!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. I scowled, wondering how someone could be so happy with killing people. A flash of red caught my eye and I looked down to see a piece of Superman’s cape flutter to the ground and land next to me. I assumed that this was the only thing left of him. 

Diana left my side in a flash and flew over to the robot, taking it down with one hit, not caring where it fell or who it could have hurt. We hadn’t seen Diana like this before, and for the first time in a long time a small tendril of fear was mixed in with the overall anger and sadness that was brewing in my head. 

Diana tore the robot apart with her bare hands, before knocking a squirt gun out of Toyman’s hands and holding up in the air by his shirt collar. Usually I don’t agree with killing, something that Diana and I sometimes disagreed on, but this time all I could think about was how he had taken one of the most important things away from me. If she went too far, I don’t think that I would stop her. He killed my Evie. 

I shook those thoughts away and lightning flashed across the sky as I looked around the ground for any evidence that Superman and Eves were still alive. My head was spinning a mile a minute trying to think of all the ways they could have survived whatever the hell that blast was. Even though I was fairly far away, the long range microphone in my cowl was able to pick up what Diana was saying to Toyman. 

“What are you gonna do to me?” He asked her, fear evident in his voice as he dangled from the ground. 

“I’m going to punch a hole in your head,” she said, her voice deathly quiet. I stilled at that, hearing her say it like that, it made all the more real that she could cross the line we all swore we never would, and I didn’t know what was worse; if we crossed that line, or if I didn’t care that we had crossed it. I made a promise years ago that I would never kill anyone, but with her gone a part of me felt like it all seemed useless. 

A sharp movement of air that usually marks Flash’s arrival sounded in my earpiece. “We don’t do that to our enemies,” he told Diana. 

“Speak for yourself,” She said. I turned and saw her raise her fist higher and I wasn’t sure what I would do if she did try and hit him. I placed my hand on one of my batarangs, just in case. 

“I’m trying to speak for Superman and Aquatica,” Flash said quietly. My chest clenched again but I released my grip on the batarang as Diana threw Toyman onto the ground. She turned away and crossed her arms over herself as we all looked at the ground. 

I had already picked up the piece of Superman’s cape, but I noticed something else had rolled towards the rest of the debris. I took a step forward and picked it up, and immediately wished I hadn’t. It was half of her staff. Broken clean in half by whatever the beam was, but it was hers. My hand clenched around it and I settled myself for a moment. The League was watching, I couldn’t lose it here. I had to be as unemotional as I usually am, they couldn’t see how affected I was, how close I was to breaking. Breaking was a weakness that I couldn’t afford. 

I stepped back and melted into the shadows, away from everyone. I sloshed through the growing puddles until I made my way into my jet. I got into the console and sat down, methodically pressing the startup sequence like I have thousands of times before, setting a course for the manor. 

“Do you have plans for tonight?” she asked as she turned to face me, a smile playing on her lips and a glimmer in her ice blue eyes. “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a night to relax.” 

“What’d you have in mind?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from hers to look at Kalibak struggling to get back on his feet again. 

“I don’t know. Dinner and a movie? At your place this time. I still haven’t seen the legendary manor,” she gently tossed her curls over her shoulder as she sent me a look, her small smirk growing as she saw my sheepish face. I’d known her for so long and she hadn’t even seen my home yet, just another part of me that I couldn’t seem to open up about. 

The memory of her played back in my head, along with all of my regrets. I never told her half the things I should have, I never took her home, I never had the boys meet her...I could go on forever about all the ways I disappointed her. I had held her an arms length away this whole time and now...

You’re thinking as if she’s already gone forever, the small voice in my head said. I shook the thoughts out of my head as I finished navigating home. She isn’t gone. I don’t care what I have to do, or who I have to go through, but I will get her back. 

I brought myself out of my racing thoughts and pulled the jet onto the landing platform and stepped out, my cape falling down behind me. I pulled my cowl off and headed straight for the computer, not sparing a glance at what I presumed to be a very worried Alfred, judging by his rushed footsteps down the stairs. 

I pulled the chair out and sat down, immediately pulling up the different computer programs to start looking for footage of the fight, and to set up evidence analysis on the cape and her staff. 

“Master Bruce?” I distantly heard his voice as my thoughts were racing and my fingers were flying over my keyboard. I made a noise that acknowledged I heard him, but I never moved my eyes from the monitors. “Master Bruce, are you listening?” he asked again, but this time I stayed silent. I didn’t have time for questions, I needed to figure out how to get her back. 

“Bruce,” he said, as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I paused at that, knowing that Alfred only called me by just my first name when he was genuinely worried. He took my pause in typing as an invitation for him to speak. “The news is saying that Superman and Aquatica have been killed. Is it true?” 

My heart clenched again and I shook my head. “I’m going to bring them back, Alfred. I just have to figure out how.” I went back to typing, setting up programs to start running equations for the blast radius and the amount of property destroyed. 

Alfred was silent for a moment before letting out a heavy breath. “Oh, Bruce. There are some things that even you can’t change. If they’re gone then I’m afraid they’re gone.” 

Before he had even finished the sentence I was already shaking my head in disagreement. “We don’t know what they were hit with. Until I’ve gone through every possible option, then there’s a way for me to bring them back.” There was another heavy pause before Alfred stepped to the side of the computer, so he was back in my peripheral vision. 

“And are you going through all of these options because one of the ones killed was Ms. Evelyn? Or simply because it involved 2 League members?” My fingers stilled for a moment before I resumed typing. 

“Personal feelings can’t get in the way of work.” I mumbled, knowing that I was lying to myself, and knowing that Alfred knew I was lying too. If it was just Superman killed, I would still be looking, but certainly not in such a panic, as ashamed as I am to admit that. 

“I see. Well, if you’re going to be playing God again, then I suppose I should put on some coffee.” He said, before turning and walking up the stairs. Once he was gone, I slumped back in my seat and ran a hand through my hair. What if she was really gone? Who was supposed to take care of her belongings? I thought about it for a few minutes before realization hit me like lightning. 

I probably was. As far as I knew I was the closest to her. She had no other family. I don’t think anyone in the League knew who she actually was. Just me. I leaned further back in my chair, stunned at this realization. Did she even have plans for what she wanted? 

I shook my head and leant forward to resume my typing. I promised that I would get her back, and that is exactly what I was going to do, anyone or anything else be damned. 

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I stifled a yawn as I finished the final analysis I had set up for everything that had been acquired from the scene. Half gone stop signs, fire hydrants, poles, rebar...anything I could find that had been hit by the beam had been run through almost every evidence analysis system I had. I was waiting for the final part to finish and I would be able to put all of it together.   
I rubbed my hands over my face, and stifled another yawn. I don’t even know how long I had been awake at this point, but it had been a while since I slept. Despite Alfred’s protests I hadn’t stopped working and was streamlining coffee at this point just to keep me awake. 

I stood up from the chair and began pacing, thinking of all the footage I had watched, the reports I had accumulated so far, the possible explanations, the scientific probabilities behind them disappearing; all of which I had gone over for the past few days. I stopped and sighed, I was stuck on this. I had no clue how to explain where they could have gone. I looked down at my hand and saw that I had absently been twirling Evie’s staff in my hand. It wasn’t the first time I had caught myself holding her staff, the last piece I had of her. Another sigh left me and I shook my head, placing the staff on the desk and making the long walk up the stairs to the first floor of the manor. 

I opened the door and looked out the window, noticing how the sky was a dark purple, giving no indication as to whether the sun was coming up, or whether it had just set. I made my way into the kitchen, swiping an apple from a bowl sitting on the counter and taking a bite, instantly regretting only eating a small amount of food in the time I had been in the cave. I climbed up the stairs and walked down the hallway and into my room, intent to take a shower and get dressed into real clothes. 

I stripped off the uniform, and stepped into the hot shower, my muscles relaxing and stretching from sitting in my desk chair for who knows how long. This was the longest I had been in the same uniform, and honestly I was beginning to repulse myself. Hopefully the shower would wash everything off me and allow me to look at everything with fresh eyes. 

A few minutes later I stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around my waist. I wiped the condensation off of the mirror and stared at my reflection. Water droplets were running down my face and shoulders and there were traces of small bruises that were yellowing and in the final stages of healing, but the worst part was the dark circles under my eyes. They were pitch black, and looked like I had been punched in the face. My usual dark blue eyes looked almost black in comparison. It had been a while since I looked this bad. I rubbed the stubble on my chin, picked up my razor, and started scraping the coarse hairs off and watching as they fell in the sink. 

When I was done I wiped my face and was somewhat pleased by my appearance. At least it had me looking somewhat normal. I went through my usual routine of getting dressed, including my usual suit, tie, and coat, and went downstairs. 

“Master Bruce?” Alfred asked as I turned the corner and almost ran into him. “It’s about time you came back to the land of daylight and normal people. You’ve been down there for three days.” He said, giving me a small scowl and I knew I was in a little bit of trouble. 

“I had work to do,” I said, suddenly feeling like a little kid who was being reprimanded. No matter how old I was, Alfred could always make me feel this way and as much as I hated it, I appreciated it moreso. 

“You can’t do work if you’re sick in bed, Master Bruce. You should take better care of yourself.” 

“I know. But I need to get her back, Alfred.” I said, walking past him. 

“Well where are you off to now?” Alfred asked, following me down the hallway. 

“To plan Evie’s funeral,” I said grabbing some keys off a wall near the garage and heading towards the front door. 

“I thought you said you were finding a way to bring her back?” Alfred asked, sounding utterly perplexed. “Why on Earth would you be planning a funeral?” 

I sighed and turned around. “What if I’m wrong Alfred? If I can’t bring her back, then I need to know that she’s resting...that she can be at peace.” I turned around and headed towards one of my cars that was parked at the edge of one of the garages. “Her parents are buried in a small cemetery a few minutes outside the city. I think that’s where she wants to be.” 

“And what will the press think of that once they get wind? Don’t you think it would be a little obvious that you two know each other?” Alfred grabbed a coat from the coat rack and helped me put it on. 

“The only thing the press will think is a generous billionaire is thanking a hero who protects the city he lives in. That’s all.” I shrugged the coat on and walked out the door. 

“If you say so, sir.” 

Alfred left me to my own devices as I walked out the door and slid into the car. I could only hope that I was wrong, that eventually we would get rid of the memorial because she would be back. 

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It was early the next morning when I woke up and started analyzing the data that had been completed. After planning everything for Eves, Alfred quite forcefully made me get a few hours of sleep, as restless as they were. Making all of these arrangements was enough to bring back some very bad memories that I didn’t want to remember, making it very hard to get any sleep at all. 

I sat at the computer, rubbing Evie’s staff in between my fingers, and looking at the footage of Superman supposedly being disintegrated. I couldn’t stand to look at Evie's footage, so Superman’s would have to do. Quiet footsteps snuck up behind me and I knew that Alfred was doing his best to quietly approach me. 

“What is it, Alfred?” I grumbled, not wanting to stop looking at the footage in front of me, as much as it hurt to do so. 

“I’m afraid it’s time, Master Bruce,” he said, coming to a stop behind me. Today was the day for the funerals, at least Superman’s. I had told the press that Evie’s was to be a private ceremony, as requested by her ‘family’. They didn’t necessarily argue, but from what Diana had told me in the few minutes she had checked in, they were still going to hold a memorial service for her. 

“I’m not going to the service, Alfred,” I said, pushing myself out of my chair and walking over to the table. 

“Why?” Alfred asked. 

“Because they aren’t dead.” I said, standing in front of the table that held all of the evidence. “What tipped me off was the lack of evidence.”

“Sir?” Alfred asked, looking at all the stuff that was sitting out. 

“I brought all this from the crime scene, and I’ve examined it every way I know how.” 

“And you’ve found?” 

“Absolutely nothing,” I said, turning to face him. “No scorching, no residue, no radiation. Objects were here, and then they were gone.” 

I searched Alfred’s puzzled face, “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t understand.” 

“Matter can’t be created or destroyed. Just changed from one form to another.” A slight flicker of understanding crossed Alfred’s face. “I believe I heard something about that when I attended grammar school.” 

I continued on, “So, unless the law of conservation of mass has been repealed, there’s still hope.” 

“That’s...wonderful news, Master Bruce,” Alfred said, and I noted the hesitation in his voice. “Nevertheless, don’t you think you should make an appearance?”

“What for?” I asked, not wanting to get into this conversation again. “I’ve got work to do.” I walked over towards the computer again, thinking of what to do next. Now that I really believed they weren’t dead, it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. I listened as Alfred’s footsteps faded away, and his words creeped into my head once again. What if I was wrong? Maybe I should make a small appearance. I debated with myself for a few minutes before starting another few programs on the computer and walking up to the Batmobile, where Alfred was standing. 

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” I said, not bothering to spare a glance at Alfred’s knowing smile. 

“Very well, sir. I may stay out a little longer. Properly pay my respects,” He said, turning away to go up to the main part of the house. 

“You’re going?” I asked. 

Alfred stopped walking and turned around to face me. “Of course, sir. Miss Evelyn means a great deal to you, which means she means a great deal to me too.” and without another word he walked up the stairs and closed the door. I stood there for another moment, before smiling and getting into the car. 

Half an hour later I had arrived at the church where the ceremony would take place. I parked in an alley a few blocks away so no one would find the car and I scaled the rooftops until I was sitting on the edge of an overhang on the church. I couldn’t bring myself to go inside, so I would listen to the ceremony from here. The quiet murmuring of everyone in the church filled my headset as I looked at the sky, dark with storms. How fitting. 

Eventually the murmurs died down, and J’onns low voice began speaking. “As we gather here today bound together in sorrow and loss, we share a precious gift. We are, all of us, privileged to live a life that has been touched by both Superman and Aquatica, both of whom possessed many extraordinary gifts, and they shared them with us freely.

For Superman, none of these gifts were as remarkable as his ability to discern what needed to be done and his unfailing courage to do it, whatever the personal cost. And for Aquatica, as amazing as her powers were, they failed to be as awe-inspiring as her protectiveness and her ability to love, to see the good in people.” I smiled at that because J’onn was right. Evie was the most protective when it came to the safety and well being of everyone else. It’s why we all seemed to be drawn to her, that sense of love is damn near irresistible. J’onn continued, “Let us all strive to accept their gifts and pass them along as an ongoing tribute to Kal-El of Krypton and Aquatica; the immigrant from the stars, and the girl who died protecting those she loved, who both taught us how to be heroes.” 

As J’onn finished, the church was filled with applause and every now and then a few sniffles from those who had been crying. The applause died down and I knew they were going to walk the caskets down to the memorials. Even though I never answered, Diana had continued to call and try to update me on what was going on, begging me to come and pay my respects. Even if I didn’t agree with the whole thing, since I knew they weren’t dead, it was a nice gesture giving them each a memorial in the middle of the city. 

Below me, people filed out of the church and lined the streets and the sidewalk. The bell above me tolled, and the rest of the League walked out, carrying caskets covered in black silk. The first one had Superman’s symbol on it, the second had nothing marked on it, since Eves didn’t wear a symbol. The only one’s in the precession were the League, other heroes that we had helped before, including the Lantern Corp and Atlantians, and the Kent family. 

I left the church’s rooftop and followed the procession across the rooftops until it got to the memorial. As much as I stayed hidden in the shadows, Diana noticed me and sent me a pitying glance, one which I refused to acknowledge. 

The memorials themselves were beautiful. Superman’s was a 30 foot glass piece of his symbol, laid back against black marble, and Evies was a large fountain, made of blue and black marble that showered water down and created a calming ambiance. Everytime I saw it, I could picture Evie sitting on the edge of it, soaking up the sunlight and reading a book. It was quite fitting for her. 

The caskets were lowered to their final resting places and eventually the crowd dispersed, including the League. There was no point in staying while there was work to be done, so I made my way back to the car. My computer had finished the programming and I read the results. The theories so far were pocket dimensions, time travel, or space travel, all of which I was barely familiar with. A quick search showed that there were a few professors in Gotham that were theoretical experts. They were my next stop. 

I raced across town to try and find answers when my League communicator went off. “Batman, this is Diana.” 

I sighed, starting to get annoyed with how often she’s been checking in on me. “Go ahead.” 

“We’re discussing the future of the Justice League. We’re hoping you’ll make it official and become a full time member.” 

I rolled my eyes. They had only buried them a few hours ago and they were already trying to replace them. “I’m busy. Batman out,” I muttered and shut off my communicator. They weren’t even considering the possibility that they were alive. To them, they were gone forever so they might as well replace them. I don’t even think the League knew where Evie’s actual grave was, and it’s not like they hadn’t asked. Or maybe they had, I hadn’t been the easiest person to get ahold of this week. I shook these thoughts from my head and raced down the street, trying to make it to the University before the professor I needed to speak to first left.   
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It was the middle of the night and I hadn’t gotten any closer to finding a way to bring them back. The only answers I could get was that there was no way to know for certain where or when they had gone, and the technology to bring them back wasn’t even close to being accurate. So for now, it seemed as if I was stuck. The only thing he could help me with was a tracker to try and locate remnants of Superman’s unique DNA. 

After hearing this news, I had wandered around the city for a while, trying to figure out what to do next while half heartedly using the machine that I knew wouldn’t really work. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of their memorials. I sighed and looked at his looming symbol. “Another dead end.” I put the machine back in my belt and stood there, looking up. “I’m beginning to wonder if I might be wrong.” the self-doubt had been creeping in for the past few days, and if I was wrong, that means I had missed out on a lot of things, including saying goodbye. “I’ve got some things to say. I should have said them when you were here, but...despite our differences I have nothing but respect for you. I hope you knew,” I caught myself using the past tense and hung my head, “know that. 

You showed me that justice doesn’t always have to come from the darkness. Both of you did,” and I glanced over at Evie’s fountain. “And you, Eves-” I was cut off as an explosion sounded behind me. I turned around and saw a plume of smoke rising over the buildings. I looked back at Evie’s fountain, “Well, I think you know how I feel.” I looked back at Superman’s memorial. “What did you always call it, Clark? The ‘never ending battle’?

I ran back to the jet and flew around, looking at the destruction below. It seems with the league busy, and Superman and Eves gone, it was free range of Metropolis. There were a handful of villains, and I wasn’t sure if the League was coming or not. I fired a rocket at Kalibar, hoping to do some damage to him. I did another pass, but just as I rounded the corner, electricity engulfed the jet and short circuited everything. The only option I had was to eject and fight them hand to hand. I slammed the eject button down, and the breath left my body as it jerked into the air and my jet crashed. As I floated down, I saw Copperhead and Deadshot walking out of a jewelry store, a cart filled with jewels and diamonds. 

I guided myself right overtop of them and then dropped down, knocking Deadshot over. We both rolled before I pulled myself up. Just as I did Copperhead ran up and attacked me. I managed to dodge his first attack, but he quickly spun around a lamp post and used his momentum to swing around and kick my face. I stumbled backwards and landed against a wall. 

As I stood up, I grabbed a bolas from my belt, wrapping them around my head. As Copperhead leapt off the post, I threw the bolas, effectively tying him up and holding him there. I grabbed a pair of handcuffs from my belt, and bent over to cuff him, to make sure he didn’t escape. As soon as I reached towards him, electricity ran throughout my body. I involuntarily jerked and spasmed as I continued to be shocked. It seemed like forever, but after a few moments when it ran out, my body collapsed to the ground. I heard footsteps approaching, but my body was still involuntarily twitching, meaning I couldn’t move much. I could only listen as they approached. 

“Too bad, he was kind of cute,” I heard Live Wire say, before blacking out. 

I heard the explosions before I slowly opened my eyes and dragged myself off of the ground. The rest of the League had shown up and taken over the fight,which was good since it would have been a six on one, and even I didn’t really like those odds, especially since I hadn’t been out in the field much this week. 

I stood up and limped over to the street and watched as Lantern and Star Sapphire were battling in the sky using their beams. I turned around and saw Diana flying around a building, a trail of fire following her. Volcana was on the ground under her, holding her arms and making the fire follow her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an unoccupied hose from a fire truck, the firefighters long gone, and picked it up aiming it at Volcana. The water hit her and the force of it knocked her down, distracting her so that the fire fizzled out and I was able to cuff her. 

A few minutes later and Lantern’s force field was surrounding the villains as they were handcuffed and sitting on the ground, the League standing around them. Or at least, what was left of us. 

“Does that account for everyone?” J’onn asked. I glanced over at all the faces and saw that all of us were here, the only one that wasn’t was Kalibar. He must have escaped while the rest of us were distracted -BOOM-. My thoughts were interrupted by an explosion behind us. I turned around to see an old car land on a mountain of what looked like...cars. I was confused for a moment as to what was causing this, but the rest of the League didn’t look impressed. 

“Who’s going to go get that idiot now?” Lantern growled. 

“I will,” Shayera said, grabbing her mace and swinging it around, marching towards the car mountain. 

“Who is that?” I asked, wondering just how much I had missed in the last week that I had been awake. 

“Lobo, the big headed bounty hunter. He showed up and declared himself Superman’s replacement. Although you would know that if you had bothered to show up at all this week,” Lantern answered, shooting me a glare, which I shot right back. 

We all walked over to the mountain pile just as he threw another car into a building and shrugged his shoulders. Kalibar was groaning under the pile of cars, and I had to be slightly impressed. Not many people can beat Kalibar in a fight. 

“Pretty good, huh?” Lobo asked, turning to face the rest of us with a smug grin on his face and his hands on his hips. “When you got Lobo on your team, who needs Superman?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, another pang sounded through my chest, and I could damn near feel it through the rest of the team. I looked down at the ground. This was one of the only major battles we had all fought in without Superman and Evie, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. And the worst part was, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to get them back. The thought lingered in my head for a few moments until the sound of a missile being shot pulled me out of my thoughts. A small explosion went off right in front of my face, a hand blocking the incoming shot, and I threw a Batarang towards a building on the other side of the street. It hit Deadshot, gave him a shock, and he fell backwards out of sight. 

We all turned around and through the smoke we saw two figures standing there, a broad chested man, and a shorter woman. A moment later the smoke cleared, and an unshaven Superman and gaunt Evie stood there. My heart stopped as I looked them over. Clark had longer hair and a full beard, with what looked like the tattered remains of his cape as a cloak and a sword hanging off his back. Evie’s dark brown curls were tangled, her cheeks sunken in, and a hollow look in her eyes. They both looked like hell, Evie moreso. 

Diana was the first to come out of the collective state of shock. “Superman! Evie! You’re alive!”. 

Once the silence was broken, everyone started asking questions at once, making sure they were okay. I stayed rooted to the spot, staring as Evie subtly shrank away from everyone, and I knew that something wasn’t right. Sure, I was right and they had been still alive, but she wasn’t okay. 

Nobody else seemed to notice as they all bombarded them with more questions, and Flash walked up to Evie and scooped her into a hug. She didn’t fight it, but she didn’t move either, just hung there limp, but Flash didn’t seem to notice. He put her down and she stood there, not moving, not smiling, not doing anything. 

“We’re fine. Very glad to be home,” Clark said, looking over all of us and smiling. He locked eyes with me and nodded, but there was something behind his eyes. Almost like he wanted to look like Evie did right now, but he knew he couldn’t. He quickly explained that they had been sent to the future, and had fought some type of monsters with Vandal Savage. I wasn’t quite listening to the details as I made my way around the group and towards Eves, taking slow steps so as not to scare her. 

“You were greatly missed, my friend. By all of us.” J’onn said, placing a hand on Clark’s shoulder. The whole group turned to me, as I tore my eyes off of Eves and watched them. 

“Don’t let him fool you,” Diana chuckled. “Your deaths hit him as hard as any of us, perhaps more,” She said glancing at Evie and back to me.   
Now I crossed my arms defensively, “No, I never believed you were dead in the first place.” I glanced at Evie and saw her sky blue eyes staring into mine, and a small tear slipped down her face. It took all my self control not to pull her into my arms and wipe the dampness from her cheeks. 

“Ain’t this great?” Lobo said, pulling Clark and Diana into an embrace. “The whole team together again, all nine of us.” 

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Clark fired Lobo from the League, and as Lobo peeled out on his bike, but my main focus was on Evie. I reached out and put my hand on her arm, and instead of leaning into my touch like she usually would, her arm tensed under it. I frowned and looked at her again, but the broken look in her tear filled eyes made my own chest hurt. 

Clark walked up to us, telling the League to wait for him. He stopped in front of me and leaned in close, so that only I could hear him. “Bruce, she’s in shock. I need you to take care of her,” He said. I nodded, wanting to ask a thousand questions but I knew now wasn’t the right time. “Take her home and help her, I think she really needs you right now.” 

“How much has she been through?” I asked, wanting to prepare myself for the damage that was inflicted on her. Clark glanced over at her. 

“Physically, she’s probably just tired and dehydrated. Mentally? It was a little rough. Some of the things we had seen, I’m used to. I think she was just overloaded. Plus, Savage wasn’t as kind to her. He kept going on and on about how he killed the League,” He glanced at me and furrowed his eyebrows. “He specifically made a point to go into detail with your death. That really hurt her.” 

I nodded and swallowed the millions of questions that were waiting to be asked. “Alright, I’ve got her.” 

Clark nodded, and turned to the rest of the League, “We have a job to do, I’ll explain on the way.” Within moments it was just the two of us standing in the street. Now my full attention was on Evie, who still hadn’t moved. 

“Eves? Can you hear me?” I stepped in front of her and bent down so I was at eye level with her. She stared into my eyes and nodded, but still refused to make a sound. “I’m going to take you home, okay?” She nodded again and I straightened up, returning to my full height. I took her hand in mine and started to lead her away towards the Batmobile. We had managed to take a few steps before she tripped over a piece of cement and I caught her. I figured that carrying her would be easier at this point, so I bent down so I was at eye level again. “Eves, do you mind if I carry you?” I waited for her response, and a few moments later when she slowly nodded, I scooped her into my arms and started walking again. 

A few moments later we had made it to the ally the Batmobile was parked in. I stepped around to the passenger side and opened the door, preparing to put Evie in, but the second I tried to loosen my grip, her hands dug into my arms and a look of panic crossed her face. 

“Please don’t leave,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and shaky. My chest tightened once again as I repositioned her in my arms. 

“I’m not going anywhere, but I have to set you down so we can go home,” I said, staring into her eyes, suddenly hating the mask I was wearing and how it blocked her from seeing my own eyes. She nodded and slowly loosened her grip. I carefully set her in the car and carefully closed the door. 

I was in the driver's seat a moment later, starting the car to drive back to the manor. The ride was silent as we both stared at the road. I pulled out a water bottle and opened it, handing it to her. "Here, sip this. It'll make you feel better." 

She gingerly took the bottle and put it up against her lips, slowly sipping the water. I kept her in my peripheral vision as my mind wandered through the possibilities of what they could have gone through. They went to the future, but they didn't say how far they went, or for how long they were there. And the League was dead. And supposedly the Earth was an apocalypse ground. Who knows what they went through when they were there. 

My thoughts were interrupted by Evie setting the empty bottle in the cup holder on the door. After just one bottle she already looked a little better. I realized that most of her issues could be easily fixed by making sure she had water and food. Her shock though, that would take a little longer to fix, and I probably wasn't the best person to help her through that. I rolled my eyes, I don’t know why Clark had me take her without knowing-

"This is the main entrance?" Evie broke my thoughts as the lights of the manor put a soft glow on her face. I hadn't even realized that we had arrived, and that I had pulled up the main drive. "It's huge." 

I gave a chuckle at her shocked face, thankful that it was something other than the numbness. “I wasn’t even paying attention, I didn’t mean to bring you through the front. Do you want to go to the cave?" By now I had already pulled up to the front of the driveway, but Evie was staring up at the house. 

"No, it's okay," she said, already beginning to undo her seat belt. At least now she was resembling her usual self. I turned the car off and jumped out, standing in front of her door before she fully had her seat belt off. I opened the door and took her hand, helping her out of the car. 

Once she was steady on her feet, I reached up and pulled the mask off knowing that there wasn't anybody around except her and Alfred. "Well, at least you get to meet Alfred," I muttered, not thinking she would hear me. She surprised me by taking a hold of my arm. 

"Who's Alfred?" She asked, slowing her pace. 

I matched my pace to hers while I was thinking about my answer. "Alfred is the family butler. He's also my valet, tailor, doctor, confidant, he helps run the batcave, monitors surveillance when I need it; Alfred is pretty much everything." I glanced down at Eves back up at the house. "He raised me after my parents died. He's the reason I am the man I am." 

Evie nodded, looking thoughtful. "He's important to you," she stated. 

I gave her a small smile, "He is. I tell him pretty much everything. Not like I have much of a choice. He can read me like a book," I chuckled. 

By now we had made it up to the top of the stairs. Evie's grip on my arm tightened a little as I opened up the large door. I helped her up the step and closed the door behind us. The foyer was lit in a soft glow, and I could hear the fire crackling in the great hall. 

"Master Bruce, I'm surprised you did not enter through the cave," Alfred said, rounding the corner from the great hall. As he drew closer he saw that there was another figure in the hall. "Ah, I see you've found another stray." 

I chuckled, "Alfred, this is Evelyn. Or, Aquatica, as the world knows her." 

Evie shuffled around, not usually liking it when attention is drawn to her, but she's always too polite to say anything. Surprise flitted across Alfred's face before he regained his composure, and bowed his head towards her. "It’s wonderful to meet you at last, Miss. Evelyn. I'm glad to see that Master Bruce was right and you hadn't actually passed." 

Evie’s cheeks turned pink, but she gave Alfred a small smile. "Thank you, but you can just call me Evie." 

Alfred smiled at her before looking back at me. "Alfred, can you get a guest bedroom set up? Evie's going to stay here so I know she's alright." Beside me, Evie looked like she was going to protest but I stopped her before she could say anything. "Don't give me that look. You've been through hell. Just let me make sure you're okay." Whatever protest she had died on her lips and she nodded, agreeing to let me help her. 

"I'll go make up the bedroom now," Alfred said, turning towards the great hall. "There is leftover soup on the stove. It should still be warm. Make sure both of you have some." 

"Thank you, Alfred," I said. He disappeared down the hall and I gently took Evie's hand. "Come on, let's get you something to eat." 

I guided her into the kitchen and sat her down at the table that was in there. True to his word, there was a large pot on the stove, and judging by the smell, it was his chicken noodle soup. My mouth started watering, and I really couldn't remember when the last time I ate was. I grabbed some bowls and spoons and dished up, walking over to the table and setting a bowl down in front of Evie. 

"Thank you," she murmured, before picking up her spoon and taking small bites. I watched her for another moment before digging into my bowl. We ate in silence, the soft scraping of the spoon against the bowl filling the space. 

I had finished my bowl but Evie was still working on hers. I cleaned mine up and walked back over to the table to sit down. Evie had gotten halfway through her bowl before she pushed away from her. She must have seen the look I gave her, because she stood up and took the bowl over to the sink. "It was delicious, but I'm full. I haven't eaten a full meal in weeks. I don't want to overdo it." 

I couldn't help the shocked look that came across my face. "Weeks?" I whispered. It was only a week here. 

Evie looked down at her bowl and the haunted look came back, although it wasn't as bad as before. "Yeah. I mean, it was kind of hard to keep track of the days...but it was a while." She placed the bowl in the sink and turned around and leaned against the counter, staring at me. 

The only light in the kitchen came from a small lamp in the corner, and the moonlight from the windows, but even so, the way it danced across Evie’s face made her look stunning. I suppose she always looked like that, but this was the first time I had the chance to say it to her. Perhaps it was not seeing her for a week, or because I thought she was dead, but there were a lot of things I wanted to say to her. 

Instead, I lifted my hand out to her and she took it. I gently pulled her towards me in a hug which she quickly reciprocated. Tonight wasn't the night to say those things. We were both tired, and Eves had enough to sort out. But having her tucked into me, made it a lot harder to not have the words tumble out of my mouth. 

We stood in the dark for a few minutes more, our arms wrapped around each other and her head tucked under my chin. When I looked down at her, her eyes were closed, her mouth parted slightly. She was half asleep. I chuckled and rubbed her back, quietly waking her up. "C'mon Eves, let's get you ready for bed." 

Her eyes fluttered open and found mine. She gave me a tired smile but nodded. I took her hand to lead her up the stairs, and once we got to the main hallway Alfred had just stepped out-of the bedroom. 

"Her room is in order, sir. I placed her in the bedroom next to yours if you don't mind." 

"Thank you, Alfred. I think that will be all tonight." 

"Very well." Alfred turned and started down the steps before bidding us a goodnight. I led Evie into the bedroom and saw that Alfred had placed a pair of my sweatpants and a black tshirt on the bed for her to change into. 

I pressed the clothes into Evie’s hands, “Here,” I said, turning to the bathroom and opening the door and turning the lights on, “the shower is in here. Wash up and then change. I”ll wait out here.” 

“Okay,” she muttered, still half asleep. Hopefully she would be okay and wouldn’t fall asleep in there. I didn’t want to invade her privacy by going in and waking her up. The water turned on, and I took a seat in the chair in the corner of the room. I must have dozed off because I woke up to a hand gently shaking my shoulder. “Hey,” Evie said, her hair damp from her shower. She looked a lot better after standing in the warm water. 

I sat up straight and rubbed my face with my hand. “Sorry, I fell asleep.” 

“It’s okay,” She said, straightening up, “I don’t blame you. Knowing you, you probably haven’t slept since we disappeared.” 

I chuckled, “Hey now, I got a few hours.” Evie gave a quiet laugh and sat on the bed, facing me. 

“You need to take care of yourself more. It isn’t healthy.” 

“I know.” I said, staring at her again. We sat in silence for a few minutes until Evie yawned and her eyes started fluttering closed, and I knew she needed to get to bed. “C’mon. It’s your turn to sleep now.” She only nodded and climbed under the large comforter. I fixed the sheets for her and turned the lamp off next to her bed. “Goodnight, Eves.”

She shot her hand out and grabbed mine just as I turned away. When I looked down at her, she looked like she wanted to say something, but she thought better and loosened her grip on my hand. “Goodnight, Bruce,” she murmured, before dropping her hand and tucking it away under the sheets. I only smiled at her and made my way, silently, out of the room. As quietly as I could I closed her bedroom door and made my way down the hall to my bedroom. 

As soon as I entered I peeled my uniform off and stepped in the shower myself. The worries of the last week washed off of me and I almost had to fight to keep the grin on my face. I hadn’t done anything, but Evie was back. Clark was too, and for that I was happy, but the joy I felt for Evie being back and the joy I felt for Clark being back were two very different feelings. 

I changed into a pair of sweatpants and slipped into bed, drifting off to sleep fairly quickly, glad that things were back to normal. 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I was suddenly woken up by the sound of footsteps in the hallway. I sat up straight and listened, wondering if it was Alfred. The footsteps sounded again, followed by a small thud and a string of curses. It definitely wasn’t Alfred. The footsteps continued down the stairs until I couldn’t hear them anymore. 

I silently crept across my room and opened my door. Nobody was in the hallway when I peeked through the door. I noticed that Evie’s bedroom door was open, and I knew who was creeping around. She must not be able to sleep. 

I padded down the steps as quietly as I could, hoping I could find her before she got lost in the dark. Considering she had never been here before, it was a possibility. I had cleared the dining room, the first study, and the kitchen before I came across the library. I smiled as I saw her figure walking among the bookshelves, her fingers grazing the spines of the books. Coincidentally, this was also a room I would venture to when I couldn’t sleep. The dark mahogany bookshelves along with the darker walls and the low fire made it a very comforting room. And I know Evie loves the smell of old books. Of course she would be drawn here. 

“Can’t sleep?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe. 

She jumped and turned around, finding me in the entrance way. She looked me over before her cheeks turned a dark red. I was confused for a moment until I realized what she was looking at. I never put a shirt on when I came downstairs. I was still in just my sweatpants. I chuckled, trying to play it off but I could still feel my cheeks turning pink. This was ridiculous. Out of all the women I’ve been with, I never felt nervous around them. But now, standing in front of her, I was a blushing mess and my stomach was doing somersaults. 

Evie grinned and stepped towards me. “I’m sorry, did I wake you? I didn’t mean to, but I stubbed my toe on a table in the hallway. I think I got a little loud after that.” 

“It’s fine. Are you okay?” 

“Oh yeah, my toe is fine,” she said glancing down at her bare foot. 

I pushed myself off the door frame and stood in front of her. “That’s not what I meant.” 

She didn’t say anything at first, but instead sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace, staring into the low flames. “It’s just a lot to process,” she muttered. 

I crossed the room and sat down next to her, so our knees were touching. “Do you want to talk about it?” She hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright, start at the beginning.” 

She took a deep breath and began her story, starting with her and Clark waking up. “At first we couldn’t tell where we were, but our comms were somewhat functioning, so we could piece together that we were still on Earth. What really threw us off was the red sun, so Superman’s powers were depleted. We had a signal, so we started following that. A few cars had been transported with us, so we siphoned gas, gathered as many supplies as we could, and set off.” She explained how they had started traveling, taking turns driving and camping out when they could. “We were just talking, making conversation to pass the time.” She turned and slapped my bare arm, a shocked look on her face, “How long have you known that Superman is Clark Kent?” 

“I pieced it together a while ago,” I said, rubbing the spot on my arm where she hit me.

“Well you could have told me! Imagine my surprise when he told me that he was the reporter from the Daily Planet.” She said, giving me a small glare. 

I shrugged. “It’s his secret identity. It wasn’t my place to tell.” 

She rolled her eyes, “I know. But still. Anyway,” she continued, “there were a few nights we had to fight off these mutant dog-fox things. They were pretty cute when they weren’t trying to eat us.” She went on to explain how her and Clark had trained them, and how their food supplies were running low. “That was one of the worst parts. Once we ran out of food, our hopes dwindled. It was taking forever to track down the signal, and we didn’t know what was edible and what wasn’t. There were a few days neither of us ate, but I think it affected me worse than it did him.” She furrowed her eyebrows, “My powers just stopped working. I just didn’t have the energy to keep going.” 

She explained how eventually they had gotten closer to the signal. “We burst through the brush, hoping to find a hideout of the League, or really anyone on the planet.” She stopped, her voice starting to break. “I didn’t expect to see the Watchtower.” The further she got into the story, the harder it was for her to tell it. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and leaned back into the couch, pulling her into my side. She immediately curled up into my side, and kept talking. 

“We went through the computer records, but they couldn’t really tell us anything. It was a miracle they even worked. Life on Earth had ended thousands of years before. That's when Savage came in.” Her face darkened and her body tensed. I rubbed my thumb across her arm and she relaxed a little. “He told us what happened. How he ended the Earth, and all the life on it. He said you guys tried to stop him…” She took a shaky breath and stopped speaking. 

We sat in silence, the crackling of the fire the only noise. I didn’t want to press her for details if she didn’t want to talk about it. “He killed you,” she murmured. I looked down at her, tears silently falling off of her lashes. I wiped them away, and kept my hand on her cheek. “As sad as I was about the rest of the League dying, it was him gloating about how he killed you that broke me. It’s almost like I blacked out. One minute Savage was just standing there, the next minute Clark was pulling me off of him. I guess I started hitting him to knock him down, then I started to use my powers.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know what I was doing, but my hand was around his throat, and my hands were ice.” 

She reached up and wiped away a stray tear, before falling back into silence. I knew that Evie was always scared of losing control, of seriously hurting someone, so this must have been eating her up inside. I knew that walking that line was hard, and we usually were good with the balancing act that went with it. This was probably the first time she had ever struggled. “Savage can’t die, Eves. Even if you had gone too far, he would have come back.” 

“That’s not the point, Bruce.” she muttered. 

“I know. But the important thing is you didn’t do anything. Savage was fine, and Clark pulled you off of him in time. With the conditions and situation you were in, I think you can give yourself a pass for this one,” I shifted us so that we were propped up longways on the couch, her basically laying on my chest at this point. 

She contemplated this for a few minutes before she admitted that I was right, and she continued on. She talked about Savage’s house, and how he built it; how he was able to make a life for himself. “That night I couldn’t sleep. It just didn’t feel right being around him. So I was up in the living room when Clark ran in, yelling about a time machine. Apparently Savage had tried going back, but got ‘bored’ with his project. At that point I was so exhausted, I don’t even remember what they were saying. Clark tried explaining the science to me, but it didn’t really matter,” she said, yawning as she did so. I also had to hold back a yawn, realizing that we had been down here for at least an hour. 

“Clark kept me benched when they had to go out and get the power source from the mutant-cockroach-beetle-demons. After almost killing Savage, my powers were pretty depleted. I would have just been a burden. I don’t know how long I just sat in the chair, staring at the wall, but eventually Clark told me it was time to go, and we left. That’s when we came back to you.” 

She finished her story, and gave another yawn, her eyes fluttering closed. I layed there, stroking her back lazily with my hand and staring into the fire, digesting everything she had just said. “You’re thinking awfully hard,” she murmured, goosebumps erupting against my skin as her lips moved when she spoke. 

“It’s just a lot to process,” I said, “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” 

She gave a half shrug against my chest, her eyes staying closed. “It’s s’okay,” she mumbled, “ At least I made it home.” 

A warm feeling bloomed in my chest as she said that. I didn’t know for sure, but I could only hope that she meant here, as in the manor, was home. Or at least the grumpy orphan who lived there. “I’m glad you came home,” I whispered, glancing down at her. She hummed in agreement but kept her eyes closed. 

This was the first time either of us had been in this position with each other, and I really wasn’t going to question it. I think it was something both of us wanted for so long, but we weren’t quite sure how to go about it. Granted, I wasn’t the warmest person when it came to relationships. But leave it to the girl who controls ice to melt my heart. 

Not wanting to disturb her by putting her in bed, I slowly snagged the blanket that was hanging on the back of the couch and draped it over us. She cuddled more into me, and gave a quiet hum in her sleep, but didn’t move otherwise. I wrapped my arms around her before letting my eyes close, never wanting to move from this spot. 

Alfred went through his usual morning routine, going into each room to make sure everything was in order before starting breakfast. When he walked past his Master’s room, he was quite surprised to find it empty. It was certainly too early for Bruce to be awake. Perhaps he had gone down to the cave? Nevertheless, Alfred shook the thought from his head as he continued down the hallway to the spare room. Alfred was even more surprised to find her room empty as well. Now I know something is amiss, that poor girl shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today, he thought. Maybe they got called away to League business. 

Alfred continued through the house, making his way to the first floor. When he got to the library, he was met with a most curious sight. Two lumps were on the couch in front of the fireplace, huddled under one of the throw blankets. Alfred had to suppress jumping up and down with glee in order to not wake up the two superheroes. Instead, he went over to the curtains and closed them tightly, making sure no light filtered in. After studying the two for a minute more he silently walked out of the library and shut the door, so as not to disturb them. 

As quiet as he had to be, Alfred didn’t have to hide the smile that was on his face. It’s about time, Alfred thought, if Bruce hadn’t made a move on the girl anytime soon, I would have done it for him. Alfred had watched the boy grow into the man he is, with many messy relationships along the way. Up until a few years ago, Bruce seemed to only have two settings; raging bachelor or stoic hermit; Alfred didn’t know which stage was worse. All he wanted was for Bruce to be happy. 

But when Bruce came home one night from being The Batman, raging about some new girl who seemed to continually find herself in his way, Alfred saw a break from Bruce’s usual pattern. At first he acted like he didn’t like the girl, but usually when Bruce didn’t like someone, he just glared at them, never truly voicing his opinions. So what made her so special?

Months passed, and Bruce would continue to come home and talk about this girl, but instead of ranting, he would just be talking about her. Then the talking became admiring, and the admiring...well, Alfred wasn’t sure where Bruce stood with her now. Alfred knew where he wanted it to be...but he wasn’t going to press the matter too much. He would let whatever it was to carry out, and if the scene in the library was enough to go by, everything would turn out fine, and it would really start fairly soon. 

So Alfred continued on through the large manor, humming a small tune as he went, trying not to wake up the couple in the library.


	22. Chapter 22- Home

Hey guys! Finally finished up my filler chapter, so here it is. The next part of this story will be the finale, and I have a lot going on there. I’ll finish this book and start Unlimited as a new one. As always, leave a review

Chapter 22-Home

I slowly blinked my eyes open, silently cursing whatever noise had awoken me in the first place. As I looked around, what confused me was the room I was in. The bedroom that Bruce had given me didn’t have this many books in it, if any at all. 

The rumbling that had woken me up in the first place sounded again, and I was surprised to hear it right under my cheek. I lifted my head to see what it was, when I noticed a weight on my back and the odd angles of my legs. And then last night hit me. I was sleeping on top of Bruce. I lifted my head so that my chin was resting on his chest so I could look at him. He was still asleep, his face peaceful, a major difference between the stress filled eyes and the furrowed brow he always had. At least I thought he was asleep as I stared at him, slightly in amazement, and slightly horrified. 

“You should still be asleep,” he murmured, his voice rough from not being used for however long we had slept for. 

“Sorry,” I whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence in the library. 

“It’s fine. I hope I didn’t wake you,” he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking into mine. 

"N-no, you didn't," I stammered, still in a slight state of shock from waking up on top of him. 

We stared at each other, myself with wide eyes and Bruce with a smug grin on his face, before he moved his arm from my back. I took that as an invitation to slide off of his chest and stand up. 

My face flushed more when I realized, again, that Bruce didn't have a shirt on. He stretched, muscles flexing as he did, and stood next to me. 

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you," I said, picking up the blanket and folding it. 

"It's no problem," Bruce said as he picked up a pillow that had fallen off the couch, "you're very comfortable." 

I giggled and put the blanket on the couch. I was about to say something else until my stomach made a noise that sounded like a wounded whale. Aquaman would have been offended. 

"Was that you?" Bruce laughed, almost having jumped from the loud noise. 

"Yes," I grumbled, crossing my arms across my abdomen. 

Bruce laughed for another minute before taking my hand and leading me out of the library, "Let's go get breakfast then." 

He led me down some hallways until we stepped into the kitchen, where Alfred was standing over the stove. He turned and gave us each a smile. "Good afternoon Master Bruce, Miss Evelyn," he said before turning back to whatever was cooking on the stove. 

"Good afternoon?" I asked as Bruce let go of my hand and I glanced down at it, "What time is it?" 

"It's a little after twelve, Miss," he said, not turning around. 

"We slept for a while," I said, looking at Bruce as he sat at the kitchen table we had eaten in last night. I noticed that the table was already set, so I guess Alfred knew we would be hungry. 

"I think it's safe to say we both deserved it. I can't remember the last time I slept for more than a few hours." 

I walked over to the table and sat down in the seat next to him. "No, neither can I." 

"Well it sounds like both of you could use as much sleep as possible," Alfred said, placing a large platter of pancakes, along with a plateful of bacon, on the table. My mouth watered at the sight and I followed Bruce's lead and began piling food onto my plate. 

I slathered my plate in syrup and took a huge mouthful, sighing in bliss as the sweet flavors hit my tongue. 

Alfred walked back over to the table, and set a folded up newspaper in between Bruce and I. I glanced at the headline. SUPERMAN AND AQUATICA MIRACULOUSLY ALIVE! “News traveled fast,” I mumbled around my mouthful of food. 

“Indeed,” Alfred said, taking a sip of what I assumed to be tea from a small cup. “The world is rejoicing. They are already talking about taking down the memorials.” 

I swallowed the food in my mouth and looked between Bruce and Alfred, "Memorials?" 

Bruce swallowed his mouthful of food and nodded. "Yeah, Clark got a giant statue of his symbol, and you had a giant fountain," he said before stuffing his mouth again. 

"A fountain?" I asked, feeling full from the mountain of pancakes I had inhaled. 

"It was rather pretty," Alfred said, already clearing my plate and setting it in the sink, "it was black marble with silver flecks in it. Very relaxing." I didn't say anything, I was too shocked knowing that I mattered enough to have a memorial. "It almost matched the material of your headstone," he said, his back towards us, but he said it with a knowing tone. 

"Headstone?" I asked, looking at Bruce. He was frozen, fork halfway to his mouth, and glaring at Alfred. "What headstone?" I asked. 

Bruce set his fork down and flicked his eyes to me. "It was nothing big," he sighed, setting his fork down "I just had a small headstone made and put it next to your family's. I'm going to remove it today." 

I sat at the table in silence, too shocked to even move. I barely registered Alfred's retreating footsteps from the kitchen. I just kept my eyes on Bruce’s face as he fidgeted under my stare. “You put me with my family?” I asked, deeply touched by the gesture, by the fact that he even cared. 

Bruce pushed away his now empty plate, “Well what else was I supposed to do? If I was wrong and you didn’t come back, I wanted you to be with your family.” He stood up and took our plates over to the sink. “I mean, I honestly debated putting a headtone in the family plot but…” he trailed off, not able to look at me. 

I smiled and slid out of my chair, pushing it in and stepping over to the sink, to stand next to him. “Honestly, I wouldn’t really mind that,” I said, crossing my arms and glancing up to him. He still wasn’t looking at me directly, but I could still see the surprise that flitted across his face. “I mean, I know I’m not necessarily part of the family, but I don’t always think I belong with mine, either.” 

Now Bruce looked at me, his brow furrowed. My cheeks turned warm and I looked down at my feet. “I don’t know. I mean, they’re my family but now I have a new family...I don’t really know where I belong.” 

I could feel Bruce’s stare drilling a whole into the side of my head, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. I could tell that his brain was working a million miles an hour, so I pushed myself off the counter and grabbed his arm. “Enough about all the sad stuff. What are we doing today? I mean, it is my first day back from the dead.” 

Bruce looked at me for another minute before tucking his arm around mine and leading me out of the kitchen into the hall, where the stairs are. “Actually, I do have an idea,” he said sliding his arm down to hold my hand. “You may have noticed, but your staff was destroyed in the, uh, incident.” 

“Yeah, when we got there, I realized it had been split in half.” I said, a wave of disappointment washing over me at the loss of my staff. 

“I have the other half still, if you want it,” Bruce said. I shrugged, not knowing what I would do with the other half, but thankful that he kept it either way. “Anyway, I’ve been working on some new gadgets for you, I figured it was time for a small upgrade.” 

“Really?!” I gasped, stopping as we arrived at the top of the stairs. “I’ve been meaning to ask if you would help me, but I never really seemed to have the time,” I gushed, excited at the thought of getting new gear. 

“Of course, I’ve been working on it for a while,” Bruce chuckled, letting go of my hand. “Now, go get dressed, you need to meet a friend of mine,” He said, nodding towards my bedroom before grinning and turning into his own room. I rushed into my room and saw that a pair of jeans and a blue sweater had been laid across my bed, along with my boots that had been repaired overnight. I smiled and put them on, flipped my hair out so my curls were a little looser, and closed my bedroom door. 

Bruce was standing in the hall already, dressed fairly similar to me, and leaning against the wall. “Ready?” He asked, standing up and taking the first step. I nodded and followed him down the steps and some of the long hallways that the manor held. He finally stopped when we got to a white door that stood out among the dark hallways. He gave me a sideways glance and a chuckle before opening the door and turning on the lights. 

Dozens of very shiny, very bright, and very fast cars gleamed under the fluorescents, and while I could usually appreciate a nice car, it was hard for me to appreciate it when Bruce was the one driving them. 

“Don’t give me that look,” I muttered, not liking that he was pleased at my small discomfort. 

“I’m not giving you a look, I just think it’s interesting you don’t like my driving.” 

“Your driving is unbelievable,” I grumbled as he grabbed a set of keys and started walking towards a cherry red car. I followed behind him and he opened the passenger door for me. I slid in and he closed the door and got into the driver's seat. He turned the ignition and the car roared to life before settling on a continuous purr. “Oh boy,” I mumbled, seeing the look on Bruce’s face. The next minute we were peeling out of the garage and down the winding driveway that led to Wayne Manor. 

I held a white knuckle grip on the door handle the entire time, while every few minutes Bruce would look at me and laugh, and I would shoot him a glare and tell him to keep an eye on the road. This went on until we arrived at the huge tower of Wayne Enterprise and headed towards the parking garage. Instead of going up the garage, Bruce headed to a lower level after swiping a key card on a scanner. “We’re going to the lower levels?” I asked, confused. “Who exactly is your friend?” 

Bruce went down a few more levels before parking his car into a spot and shutting the car off. “His name is Lucius Fox. He helps me design most of my things, my Batarangs, the Batmobile, grappling hooks…” Bruce trailed off as he stepped out of the car and walked around to my side and opened the door. 

“I always thought you did all of that,” I said, taking the hand he offered as he helped me stand up. 

“I did at first, and I still do. But as I needed more things, I didn’t have the equipment at the manor to make it, and I did need help with some of the actual buildings. So I reached out to Lucius. Made sure I could trust him, and he’s been helping me for a while now.” 

“Must be nice,” I said. I’ve been using the same gear this whole time. I wouldn’t even know where to start to get new things.” 

Bruce squeezed my hand as he led me to the door out of the parking garage, “Well now you don’t have to.” I smiled and gripped his hand as he led me through the door, into a hallway that led to a very sophisticated lab. 

“Lucius, are you here?” Bruce called. It was quiet for a moment before we heard footsteps from the opposite side of the lab. 

“Ah, Mr. Wayne, I was wondering when you would be back here,” a man said as he stepped out. The closer he got, the more I could see him. Under his white lab coat he wore a red sweater vest and a white dress shirt, accompanied by his black dress pants. His glasses reflected the lights of the fluorescents which matched the white hair that was growing on his temples. He stopped short when he noticed me next to Bruce. “Ms. Lowry. You look very nice for a woman who was supposed to be dead yesterday.” 

“Thank you, I think,” I mumbled the second half of my sentence. 

“Lucius, this is Evelyn Lowry. Evelyn, this is Lucius Fox, President of Wayne Enterprises along with inventor for most of my gear.” Bruce said, gesturing between the two of us. He shook both of our hands as he got closer. 

“A pleasure to meet you. I was wondering when Bruce would bring you around, especially after having me make all of these things for you,” He said, turning to the shelves that lined the walls and gesturing to a few boxes. 

“That’s why we’re here, actually. It’s time she got some of the things we’ve made for her,” Bruce said, rolling up the sleeves of his sweater. 

“Of course. Here, let me get them,” Lucius said as he disappeared behind a row of shelving. There was some shuffling as Lucius came around carrying two black cases in his hands. “Alright, here we go.” He set the first case down and flipped the lid open. I stepped closer and looked inside. Lying on black foam was two handles to what appeared to be daggers, except there was no blade, just the handle. I curiously picked one of them up, and examined it. It appeared to be black stone, with silver and dark blue flecks in it. As soon as I picked them up, a familiar feeling spread through my hand. 

I looked up at Bruce who was smiling at me as I handled the stone handle. “It’s more Aquam Petram, the stuff your staff was made out of. I was able to find a collection of it,” He said. 

“I thought it was almost impossible to find this stuff,” I said, amazed that he had gone through all the trouble. 

“Well, you just have to know where to look. And have the money to back it,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck.He could see that I was going to protest him spending money on me, and he quickly turned to Lucius, asking him to explain what these were. 

“These are handles. After seeing you in action, and from Mr. Wayne’s accounts, you are quite handy with a blade. However, I don’t think you would want to carry around a dozen or so blades, your suit wouldn’t hold that. Instead, you have these handles,” He said as I flipped the handle around in my hand. “You can make whatever blade you need, dagger, knife, sword. The material of the handle will actually make your blade stronger, you won’t have to use so much concentration to keep it intact.” 

I held the handle away from me and used my power to make my ice form, creating a small dagger. It was as sharp as a knife, and seemed to hold up like one. I released the ice and the blade disappeared, leaving me with the handle once more. “It works,” I said. 

“Very good,” Lucius said, turning to the other box. “I also have this,” he pulled open the lid to the other box where a familiar item was laying on top of foam. 

“My staff!” I exclaimed, picking up the familiar item. 

“It’s a new one, unfortunately I couldn’t save the old one,” Lucius said. 

“Same properties as the last one? Water, freezing, extending?” I asked, picking it up and twirling it around my fingers. 

“Of course, but Mr. Wayne did give me another accessory to add to it,” Lucius said. I glanced over at Bruce, who genuinely looked like a kid on Christmas, and then back at Lucius. “Here, extend it fully,” He said as I backed up and extended the staff to its full length. “Now, you should be able to feel a small button on the side.” I slid my thumb down until I felt the button he was talking about. I pressed it, and was surprised when the staff broke into two pieces, one in each of my hands. 

“I thought this would help, sometimes a staff can get into a tight spot. This way, you can break it and have more room,” Bruce said. I shot him a grin and twirled both halves of the staff in each hand. 

“I love it, this is perfect,” I said, turning to both Lucius and Bruce. “Thank you.” 

“It’s no problem Ms. Lowry, although I am curious,” Lucius said as he turned to Bruce, “are we showing her the other project?” 

“What other project?” I asked, looking between him and Bruce. He definitely had a deer caught in the headlights look, and I would have laughed at him if I wasn’t overly curious as to what this project was. “Bruce, what project?” I asked. 

As soon as I locked eyes with him, I saw his resolve crumble and he looked at Lucius. “She might as well know,” he said, waving towards the door that we had come in through. 

“Very good. Right this way, then.” Lucius closed the cases after I put the staff back together and set it inside the case, and walked towards the garage. “This is what I was most excited about, we decided to call it Frostbite.” 

“Frostbite?” I asked Bruce, “What is it?” 

“You’ll see in a minute,” He said, absolutely entertained with me not knowing what this new surprise is. 

“Is it a cape?” I asked, jumping so I was blocking his path. 

“A cape?” Bruce repeated, “You don’t need a cape.” 

“You have a cape, and you always look cool in it. It makes you look even more dark and mysterious,” I explained as he gently pushed me to the side and continued down the hallway with me trailing behind him. 

“You don’t need to be dark and mysterious. You’re perfect already.” 

“Flirt,” I muttered as we reached the door to the garage and Bruce gave me a cheeky grin and held the door open for me after Lucius had already gone through. 

A white tarp was draped over a shape in the garage as we all circled around it. “Ready?” Lucius asked me as he gripped the tarp. I nodded excitedly and Lucius ripped the tarp up. As soon as I saw what was under the tarp, my jaw hit the floor. 

“A bike?!” I squealed, slightly jumping up and down on the balls of my feet. 

Bruce laughed at my excitement and rubbed a hand across the handlebars. “I figured you didn’t always want to fly everywhere, so I designed it for you.” He pressed a button on the main frame of the bike and it roared to life. “It’s entirely electric, so you don’t have to worry about gas or anything, it has extra turbo, a special balancing mechanism so you should be able to make turns as tight as you need to without flipping the bike, high tread tires, tracking device, line hooks...everything you should need.” 

I couldn’t fight the grin off my face as I circled the bike, tracing a finger over the blue paint. I also noticed when the lights were on, there were electric blue LED lights that lit up the sides and underneath the bike. “It’s all mine?” I asked, already in love with the bike. 

“Yep.” Bruce said. 

“What, no sidecar? Where are you supposed to go?” I teased, loving the deadpanned look he gave me. 

At that, Lucius laughed and handed me a dark grey helmet, “This goes with the bike,” he chuckled. 

I took the helmet and gave it a once over. The outside was nothing too fancy, it just had my hero name written in small lettering on the back in light blue. 

“The helmet connects directly to the Batcave, and the League’s systems, that way you can always be in contact with someone if you need to be. The visor also has built in night vision, for any night ops you may have.” Bruce said. 

“You both really thought of everything, didn’t you?” I mused. 

“Mr. Wayne really thought of it all, I just built it,” Lucius said. I walked over to him and gave him a large hug. 

“Thank you, Lucius. I love it. All of it,” I said. Lucius chuckled and returned the hug before letting me go. 

“It’s no problem at all, Ms. Lowry,” He said, “I’m just doing my job.” 

I smiled at him before turning around and throwing myself into Bruce’s arms and essentially wrapping myself around him. “Thank you,” I muttered. 

He wrapped his arms around me for a moment before setting me down. “You’re welcome, Eves. Anything you need, just ask. I can take care of it.” 

I looked up and smiled at him before Lucius cleared his throat. We broke apart and a small blush rose up to my cheeks. 

“Mr. Wayne, I have the new cases of Batarangs and smoke bombs that you asked for, if you’re ready for them.” 

Bruce cleared his throat and turned towards Lucius, “Of course, we can load them into my car,” he said. “Evie, do you want to head home? You can drive your bike home and I’ll get the rest of your things,” he said, motioning towards the bike. 

“Sure, no problem. I’ll stop by my place first and grab some of my clothes, then head back to the Manor.” 

Bruce nodded and turned back around towards Lucius, and they both stepped back into the lab. I turned towards the bike and squealed before putting the helmet on my head and jumping on my bike. I revved the engine before peeling out of the garage, going back the way Bruce and I came in, and turning into traffic as soon as I had left the garage. I hadn’t ridden a motorbike like this in years, and I forgot how exhilarating the feeling was. I knew that I shouldn’t speed, but I couldn’t help myself. I was definitely speeding through the streets of Gotham, eager to get back to my apartment. 

Within minutes, I had arrived at my apartment building. I parked my bike in the alley by my fire escape before shutting it off, setting my helmet on top of it, and climbing up the black iron stairs to get to my window. 

As I hiked up the stairs and reached my window, I stopped short, as I saw a large orange envelope taped to the inside of my window, with ‘Aquatica’ written on it. My senses immediately went into overdrive as I realized at some point, somebody had broken into my apartment. I hesitated going through the window, not knowing who could be on the other side. I hit my earpiece and called Bruce. 

“Yeah, Eves?” He answered, and I could hear the hum of his car in the background. 

“Something’s wrong, I think somebody broke into my place,” I whispered, slowly opening up the window just enough for me to slide in. 

In the background of the call I could hear his engine roar to life, “Stay where you are, I’ll be there in 5 minutes. Don’t go inside,” He said, using his serious Batman voice. 

“Too late,” I whispered as I slid into my living room, “I’m already in.” 

“Dammit Eves,” Bruce muttered. 

“I’m clearing my rooms, I’m fine,” I whispered as I searched around my house, slowly going into each room and making sure no one was hiding. 

From down the street, I could hear the squealing of tires and I knew Bruce had arrived. “Slow down, my place is empty,” I said as I straightened up from my defensive stance. “Just come in through the front, I’ll leave the door unlocked.” I hung up my earpiece and walked over to my front door, unlocking the deadbolt. I saw another envelope had been taped to my door, almost identical to the other envelope. 

A moment hadn’t even passed as my front door was thrown open and Bruce rushed in, pushing me down in his haste. 

“Hey!” I exclaimed as I hit the ground. 

Bruce looked around confused before seeing me on the ground and a sheepish grin crossed his face, “Sorry,” He said as he grabbed my hand and lifted me off the floor. 

“It’s okay,” I said, brushing myself off. “Here,” I said, pointing to the envelope on the door, “there’s one just like it on my back window, on the inside.” I crossed the room and plucked the envelope off the window. 

“Careful,” Bruce said, gingerly holding his envelope, “we don’t know what’s inside.” I nodded and set my envelope down on the kitchen countertop. I took a knife from the knife block, and carefully sliced the seal. Setting the knife down, I carefully looked into the envelope, and was confused at all of the papers that were inside. 

“It’s just paper,” I said, sliding them out and looking them over. There were dozens of pictures of a car wreck, all taken from different angles. Behind the photos were newspaper clippings, police files, and lab reports from what appeared to be the same accident. “Why would somebody give me a file about a car accident?” I asked, confused. 

Bruce appeared behind me and started reading over my shoulder. “Eves...I think it’s of you,” He murmured. 

“What?” I asked, looking more closely at the photos. My heart came to a stop as I saw what the car actually looked like, the names in the reports. “This was my parents car accident,” I whispered. “Why would somebody give me this?” I asked. 

“I don’t know,” Bruce said, moving a sheet of paper aside to a blank one, with only one thing written on it, in red ink; ‘Accident?’. I stared at it, my mind completely blank, I couldn’t form any thoughts. Bruce must have noticed the look on my face because he immediately scooped up the papers and put them back in the envelope. “Come on,” He muttered, putting the closed envelope on the counter, “come get your things so we can go home.” 

I blinked the red ink that was seared into my eyes away, “I can stay here,” I said. Before I had gotten that sentence out, Bruce was already shaking his head. 

“Absolutely not. You’re still recovering from the last week, and your house has been compromised. It’s not safe here.” 

It took me a minute before I was nodding, agreeing with him. “Fine, I’ll grab some things,” I said, heading towards my bedroom. I grabbed the large duffle bag from my closet and set it on my bed, immediately filling it up with my uniforms, and the rest of the clothes in my closet. After all my clothes were packed up, I began with the knick knacks that I had acquired over the last few years. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Bruce leaning against my door frame. “I’m fine, Bruce,” I said, not quite looking at him. 

“I know,” He said, pushing off the door frame and helping me collect some things. “We’re going to figure this out,” He said. I nodded and looked around the room, wondering if there was anything else I should take with me. The last thing I needed was a photograph of my parents and my sister that was sitting on my nightstand. I picked it up and looked at it, before seeing the photos from the file flash before me. I quickly put the frame into the bag and zipped it up. 

“That’s it,” I said, looking around the room. 

“What about your books?” Bruce asked, gesturing to my bookshelf. 

I hesitated before walking past it and into my living room. “I can always come back for those later,” I said. Bruce hummed in agreement and followed me into the living room. “Besides, it’s not like the Manor is in short supply.” 

“That’s true,” Bruce said, taking the strap of my duffle bag and putting it on his shoulder. “I’ll put this in the car. You take your bike and meet me there, I'll follow behind you to make sure no one is tailing you.” 

I nodded, muttering a quick thank you before slipping out the window. “Can you lock the door and window for me? I don’t really want somebody in my place again,” I asked Bruce, who nodded and closed the window behind me. I heard the lock click and made my way down the alley. I pulled my bike from behind some trash cans and hopped on, starting it. I pulled out onto the road and started making my way to the outskirts of Gotham. I checked my mirrors and saw Bruce was behind me. I looked back at the road and let my mind wander. Who had left the envelope? And how did they know who I was, or where I lived? And why give me the case file from our accident? What did they want me to know?

“Eves, you there?” Bruce asked me through my helmet, pulling me out of my thoughts. 

“Yeah, I’m here,” I said. 

“When you pull up to the manor, go to the right and follow the path towards the garage. You can park there and I’ll take your bike down to the cave later.” 

“Okay,” I said, driving through the gates of the manor. I followed the path to the side of the house and the garage door was already open. I pulled in, leaving enough room for Bruce to go past me, and shut my bike off and removed my helmet, shaking my hair out as I did. 

Bruce stepped out of his car and opened up the doors to the back seat. The first thing he pulled out was my duffle bag, which I took from him and slung it over my own shoulder. Next he pulled out the two cases that Lucius had given me, which held my staff and handles, and I took those. He pulled out two more cases, which I assumed were his Batarangs and smoke bombs, and then closed the door. “Just leave your bag in the hallway,” he said, opening up the door into the main house, “Alfred will take care of it.” 

“Oh, it’s heavy, I don’t want to bother him,” I said, not wanting to be rude since him and Bruce were giving me a roof over our heads. 

Bruce chuckled and walked over to the grandfather clock that was in the main hallway. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t mind. Honestly, if you tried to do it himself he would probably be offended.” 

I gave a small laugh and let the bag slip from my shoulder with a thud. “Alright then,” I said, moving to stand next to Bruce. He reached up and moved the hands of the clock so it read 10:48, and the panel slid to the side, revealing a staircase leading down. “Fancy.” 

Bruce only rolled his eyes with a smile on his face and started down the stairs. I followed behind him and soon enough we were in the Batcave. “You can put your gear down here,” Bruce said, gesturing to a table. “I’ll have a display case put in for you to keep some of your stuff,” he continued, setting down the cases we had gotten earlier in the day. 

I smirked, and set my cases down next to his. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I would think you’re asking me to move in,” I said, teasing him. Although, I wasn’t expecting the serious look on Bruce’s face as he met my gaze. 

“If you want to, you could,” He said. 

“What?” I asked, completely shocked. 

“I mean, you could live here, if you wanted. I have plenty of room, and the manor can get fairly empty with the boys being in and out. Plus, it would give you a space to work out of, for cases and stuff,” He said, seemingly completely nonchalant about it. 

“You’re serious,” I said, still not believing what he was saying. 

“I am.” He took my hand in his and pulled me closer. “Eves, I’ve already lost you once. I don’t quite think I could bear losing you again. Plus, if your apartment was compromised, I don’t want you going back there, it isn’t safe.” 

I blushed at his admittance and was momentarily speechless. “Bruce, a lot can go wrong here. I mean, we haven’t even put a label on us,” I said, gesturing between the two of us with the hand that he wasn’t holding. “What if people notice that a superhero is constantly seen coming in and out of your house? It could tip people off on your secret, put all of you in danger,” I rambled, gesturing wildly now. 

“You’re right, a lot could go wrong. But a lot can go right too. My life is complicated. Very complicated. But it never seems to be complicated with you,” Bruce said, rubbing his thumb along my knuckles. “You don’t have to-” 

“I will!” I interrupted before he could even finish his sentence, “I’ll move in. I mean, I’m essentially moved in already since I emptied my place. I might as well make it official,” I said. 

At first Bruce looked slightly shocked at my outburst, but then he got the biggest grin on his face as he picked me up and spun me around. I laughed at his outright show of happiness and he set me down, the grin still not leaving his face. “Well c’mon then. The envelope can wait a night. We can go pick out your room.” 

“I thought I already had a room,” I said, trailing behind him as he started up the stairs. 

“Well that was just a temporary room. If you wanted to, I could give you a whole wing to yourself. It isn’t a huge deal.” 

I thought about it before shaking my head, “I like the room I’m in now. I’ll just keep that. We can work the rest out later.” 

Bruce nodded and I walked past him on the stairs. “You know,” I continued, “if we’re really moving in together we’re going to have to tell the League sooner or later. And you’ll have to put up with Flash, he’s been asking me to move in with him for a year,” I laughed and sprinted up the stairs, Bruce giving a laugh and running behind me. For the first time in a long time, I was happy, at peace even. And as I ran up the stairs of my new home, I realized not only was I happy, I was genuinely home.


End file.
